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memelainaI've been playing about with the application for a couple hours and have learned to do a number of things. Still can't figure out how to set my font, although I've discovered styles and themes. Found a community and posted an entry - that part seems like a listserv. I've taken a peek at some different journal entries.
All of this reminds me of the Anne McCaffrey story - not sure which collection - where they have a group of graduate students tasked with closing out the web spaces for people who have died. When McCaffrey wrote it, and when I first read it, it was long before the web actually existed, and it seemed a bit fantastic that people would have so much personal information in a common computer. What is it that makes us want to use something like LiveJournal rather than (or in addition to) writing things on paper and locking them up in a secret drawer?
Certainly there's the fact that using a computer is easier than pen and paper. I kept pen and paper journals for years and years, and look back at them fondly from time to time, but I've become very keyboard dependent. My typing can keep up with my thoughts in a way that pen and paper never could. But there are good journal programs out there (like LifeJournal) which maintain the privacy of the little leather bound book, but in a computer format. Why LiveJournal? What is it in us that makes us want to put thoughts out there where the Lord only knows who can read them and comment on them?
Is it the anonymity of the web? We want to reach out and share ourselves? Just not with anyone we actually have to face on a day to day basis? Hmmm. I'll have to delve into this further.
For the moment, I'm just moderately satisfied with my Refried Paper format and with the various bits and pieces I've read and posted. Have to wait and see what happens next.
All of this reminds me of the Anne McCaffrey story - not sure which collection - where they have a group of graduate students tasked with closing out the web spaces for people who have died. When McCaffrey wrote it, and when I first read it, it was long before the web actually existed, and it seemed a bit fantastic that people would have so much personal information in a common computer. What is it that makes us want to use something like LiveJournal rather than (or in addition to) writing things on paper and locking them up in a secret drawer?
Certainly there's the fact that using a computer is easier than pen and paper. I kept pen and paper journals for years and years, and look back at them fondly from time to time, but I've become very keyboard dependent. My typing can keep up with my thoughts in a way that pen and paper never could. But there are good journal programs out there (like LifeJournal) which maintain the privacy of the little leather bound book, but in a computer format. Why LiveJournal? What is it in us that makes us want to put thoughts out there where the Lord only knows who can read them and comment on them?
Is it the anonymity of the web? We want to reach out and share ourselves? Just not with anyone we actually have to face on a day to day basis? Hmmm. I'll have to delve into this further.
For the moment, I'm just moderately satisfied with my Refried Paper format and with the various bits and pieces I've read and posted. Have to wait and see what happens next.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-20 04:27 pm (UTC)