Meta-journalling

[morgan_dhu]

I originally joined LJ because a group of friends I am on a mailing list with are active LJers, and I wanted to be able to read their entries here and comment on them. What I have discovered in the process of doing so is that, at least for the frequent LJers among them, I am coming to know them from a slightly different perspective.

The list that I and they are on has no topic restrictions, and we all post everything from interesting news articles to very personal rants, fears and life issues. You might think that the perspective would be much the same as that gained from reading LJ entries. But there are interesting differences. And I am enjoying those differences. It is giving me a wider and deeper glimpse into the lives of people I've come to see as friends, even though most of us will never meet, due to distance and my travel limitations due to multiple disabilities.

Which in turn is causing me to rethink my intended use of LJ. At first, I thought that I would primarily operate in comment mode - in essence, joining into conversations with people I know, much as I would on a mailing list. However, I've begun to wonder: if I am enjoying reading about the day-to-day stuff in the journals of my friends, being even more of a voyeur into their lives, isn't it... appropriate... for me to give them the same kind of glimpse into my everyday existence?

Of course, I may be wallowing in egocentricity here - but that's one of the basic issues of living on the Net anyway. And it's an interesting one. This is, I think, the first time/place in human society (since our very early days when all the society we knew was the other folks in our little tribe) where people begin from the assumption that they have something to say to others, that they deserve the opportunity to make themselves and their views widely known. That the sum of the moments of their lives matters on a larger scale.

Which has an interesting potential for the future of our political institutions - what do governments do when all citizens begin their civic involvement with the assumption that they have a right to be seen, heard and understood as individuals, not just as slips of paper in a ballot box or fractions of a statistic from the latest opinion poll? I know, this is not a new observation, but I think it may be more of a fundamental shift in Western attitudes toward the relationship of the personal and public selves than many people are aware.

All of which, of course, may just be my elaborate justification for inflicting my personal annoyances and mundane accomplishment on the rest of you. ;-)

Comments

[mishaslair.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. This is prompting me to think about why I post some things in my Live Journal as opposed to our mailing list. It isn't a matter of not wanting people on the mailing list to know these things, since there is a great deal of overlap between my LJ friends and the membership of the mailing list. There are some things, like me blathering about screenwriting, that I assume people on the mailing list may not be particularly interested in.

I think it may be a question of audience, or rather expectation of an audience. On the mailing list, I assume that people will read and respond to something that I post because that's the nature of email. On my Live Journal, I know people read it and sometimes respond, but I don't necessarily have the expectation that they will. As I said in my recent post, I journal more for myself. I suppose I tend to write email more for others or for a response.

[xochiquetzl]

Pretty much what Misha said. I mean, I love that other list, and it's not a matter of not wanting them to know stuff, it's more a matter of thinking people on the other list may or may not want to get an email about me reimaging a lab full of PCs. ;) I put it on my LJ because, well, it's my chatter-dump, but it's different from email because I'm less worried about whether or not people want to read it. Maybe because instead of piling up in your inbox taking up space it just lies around LJ until you feel like reading it, if you feel like reading it, and if you get busy no harm, no foul?

P.S.

[xochiquetzl]

All of which, of course, may just be my elaborate justification for inflicting my personal annoyances and mundane accomplishment on the rest of you. ;-)

Woohoo! :)

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

See above comments. It became clear that folks on ACIDIC didn't care that much about me blathering about writing, so that's why I do it all here.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

See, that's what I mean about getting a deeper glimpse. I know that your writing is a big part of your life, and for a variety of reasons, from the fact that I like you and hope something that's this important to you works out well to the fact that you're a good writer and we need more people like you being published to my own vicarious and slightly envious appreciation of someone I know who has the guts and determination to stick with this pursuit, I'm interesting in how your writing life is proceeding. And since you're not discussing it as much on the list, I'm delighted to find you are discussing it here, because that brings back a dimension of "seeing" you that had been lost.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

Why, thank you. I'd like to discuss it more on ACIDIC, but it didn't seem like people cared that much, so I just keep it here.

[victoriacatlady.livejournal.com]

Yes, I hope you do post more about yourself. I keep meaning to do that myself, but somehow I don't. Mostly I'm just overwhelmed with e-mail, I think.