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On Livejournal and personal space
I stumbled across this by accident -- a very interesting essay about the way that Livejournal is co-opting the online fan community and, by extension, changing the face of online interaction: http://www.trickster.org/arduinna/ljs.html (presenting the "con" side of the argument, incidentally). It's written from a fan's perspective but, really, it's interesting even if you aren't involved in online fandom.
The essay touches upon something that I had noticed, in a vague sort of way, about the Internet during the decade-plus that I've been online. The social face of the Internet definitely goes in cycles. Once upon a time, it was Usenet and mailing lists; then it was bulletin boards; now, it seems, there's a strong trend for blogs to be the new face of online interaction, co-opting the roles that these other methods once played. Not to say that there aren't still plenty of bulletin boards and mailing lists in existance, but my general experience has been that they're much quieter and more niche-oriented than they used to be, while the bulk of online interaction is now shifting over to blogs. Livejournal is *huge*. So is Myspace (a site which, incidentally, I've never liked much, and although many of my younger co-workers are Myspace junkies, it just makes me feel old and slightly out of touch). Most people who have large, well-maintained websites include some sort of blog on their site. Basically, as everybody gets online, the Internet is fragmenting. Instead of one or a handful of mailing lists and bulletin board where everybody goes to talk about, say, Buffy, or growing violets, or shoes, there are thousands upon thousands of blogs where people talk about Buffy in between talking about their cats and their plumbing problems.
And what I hadn't really thought about is that it's a very different, much more chaotic form of social interaction than the more orderly models that were used online in the past. Mailing lists, bulletin boards ... they're organized, they're moderated, they're mostly on topic. Blogs *can* be, and I think the essayist is negative enough about blogs that she hasn't really explored all the options that are out there, but generally I think she's right that blog-style social interaction is creating a generation that tolerates a much greater invasion of personal space than used to be the case in the past. (Online, at least. I really don't think it extends to real life at all.)
Drat, got more to say, but gotta go. I'll get back to this later.
The essay touches upon something that I had noticed, in a vague sort of way, about the Internet during the decade-plus that I've been online. The social face of the Internet definitely goes in cycles. Once upon a time, it was Usenet and mailing lists; then it was bulletin boards; now, it seems, there's a strong trend for blogs to be the new face of online interaction, co-opting the roles that these other methods once played. Not to say that there aren't still plenty of bulletin boards and mailing lists in existance, but my general experience has been that they're much quieter and more niche-oriented than they used to be, while the bulk of online interaction is now shifting over to blogs. Livejournal is *huge*. So is Myspace (a site which, incidentally, I've never liked much, and although many of my younger co-workers are Myspace junkies, it just makes me feel old and slightly out of touch). Most people who have large, well-maintained websites include some sort of blog on their site. Basically, as everybody gets online, the Internet is fragmenting. Instead of one or a handful of mailing lists and bulletin board where everybody goes to talk about, say, Buffy, or growing violets, or shoes, there are thousands upon thousands of blogs where people talk about Buffy in between talking about their cats and their plumbing problems.
And what I hadn't really thought about is that it's a very different, much more chaotic form of social interaction than the more orderly models that were used online in the past. Mailing lists, bulletin boards ... they're organized, they're moderated, they're mostly on topic. Blogs *can* be, and I think the essayist is negative enough about blogs that she hasn't really explored all the options that are out there, but generally I think she's right that blog-style social interaction is creating a generation that tolerates a much greater invasion of personal space than used to be the case in the past. (Online, at least. I really don't think it extends to real life at all.)
Drat, got more to say, but gotta go. I'll get back to this later.
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I guess that a lot of her gripes with LJ, are gripes that I personally have with Myspace and some of the newer blog/connect sites, and I could never really figure out *why* I felt that way about them, but I think I might have a slightly better idea now. I remember that I used to have a much more frustrating time reading stories and such in Livejournals than I do now -- I appear to have adjusted to the issues that used to bug me (such as the navigation -- chapters of a story going backwards in time, with unrelated posts in between).
I actually enjoy the slightly voyeuristic nature of blogging -- I mean, I really don't think that I *am* a voyeur, but I do like reading about the daily details of other people's lives. I think I can see how it might really bother somebody who's a private person, though. Certain personality types can probably adjust a lot better than others.
I just feel like I've gotten an insight into a point of view that I hadn't really appreciated before.
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I'm afraid I don't have much to say about the rest of this - although I agree that there are several ways that people can make their blogs more organized and on-topic. I've seen many people make separate journals for their fandom spewings, for instance; so if you're interested in them as a person, in being friends with them, then the life journal can be friended, but if you just want the fandom stuff (speaking with a general "you") then you friend the fandom journal. Of course, it also seems like such things can get rather unwieldly... anyway. Um.
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Yeah, I actually do the journal-splitting thing -- I have a separate journal for fan stuff, and I'm thinking about starting yet another one for political stuff. It *is* true that it can get cumbersome at times though...
The interesting thing to me, that I got from the article, is that it seems we may be entering an era with a whole new way of organizing information -- a sort of controlled chaos, if you will. But I think I'm too sleepy to articulate the idea properly at the moment. I'll pick this up again in the morning...
And that makes me feel better about Myspace. It's nice to not be the only one. :D
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My biology teacher is ALWAYS making fun of Myspace. When people aren't studying or being serious in class he mocks them by going "yeah, just go hang out on myspace and pick up a middle-aged predator." He's very blunt. XD
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LJ interests me as a place where one can (if you want to) drop the social mask worn in public. It is more intimate and anonymous at the same time. Anything and everything is fair game... and it prompts me to write(an excellent way to keep my addled brain going). So..." a more chaotic form of social interaction" well, yes. Kinda like life.