my view of LJ

[sageandsea]

The recent addition of new peoples (Hi!) thanks to shadesong and rollick's Big Pimping, and the loss of friends toratigris and dscanlon, have got me thinking about LiveJournal and how it is perceived.

Here's my view. I have always been fascinated by diaries. If I find an old one at an estate sale, I nearly always buy it and read through it. "John and Amy brought over their wash today." "My life was buried on this date." "The peaches are ripe." All the minutae of day-to-day life are amazing to me...but I've never been able to keep up a paper journal.

Then I found this (thanks again, yendi!). This silly thing records what is happening in my life, AND it lets me get feedback from friends, most of whom I'll probably never meet, AND it lets me read a little about YOUR lives, AND it lets me make NEW friends. How wonderful a thing is this?

Welcome to my little corner of the world, and thanks for sharing yours with me.

Comments

[stratfordbabe.livejournal.com]

What an eloquent summation! I've got friends now that I never would have met otherwise. Including you!

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

...but I've never been able to keep up a paper journal.

Me either! All of my paper journals consist of one page, which usually says something along the lines of "We'll see how long this lasts this time..."

Which is actually part of my first LJ entry... :)

This silly thing records what is happening in my life, AND it lets me get feedback from friends, most of whom I'll probably never meet, AND it lets me read a little about YOUR lives, AND it lets me make NEW friends. How wonderful a thing is this?

Yes! Yay! And I'm getting to know people that I knew before, like you, better. And this is a Good Thing.

I'm glad you're here!

[silme.livejournal.com]

I kept a paper journal for one year -- 7th grade. I still have it. I've never been able to do it again.

I love LJ.

[yendi]

:-) You were the first person I ever gave a code to! I love LJ, and for all the same reasons. I've never succesfully kept a "real" journal, but this one has thrived for over a year.

[rubrchick]

*dingdingdingdingding* You've said it perfectly!

What amazes me is that I've found a bunch of people on lj that I knew rather peripherally while I was in college. Now I keep in touch with them much more than I do with the people I was really close to in school. Funny, that.

So, yay for new lj friends and whatnot. :)

[sage-and-sea.livejournal.com]

I haven't found my old high-school friends yet, although that would be wonderful. I've made a wealth of new friends though!

Speaking of which, I'm up to 9/1/01 in your journal as of now. I love reading the Tech Diary stuff!

[rubrchick]

Hee. The Tech Diary thing was something I started in college. They're fun, I don't know why I didn't do any others after Ragtime. Glad you're enjoying it so far.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! That's it, exactly!

[cissa.livejournal.com]

That's all true for me, too, and you summed it up perfectly. I love hearing about the things that go on in people's lives. While I regret that LJ does make it hard to carry on an extended, multiple-person discussion, I enjoy hearing the things people are writing about, and offering a congratualtions or a sympathetic ear when i can.

I've kept written journals periodically, but tend to burn them at some point. So far I haven't deleted any entries, though!

I love LJ!

old unknown words

[corva.livejournal.com]

Old diaries are wonderous, and old photos as well. Every now and again there will be writing on the back of them. There was one I found on the street in the rain in Soho, years ago, that was something to the tune of "you are most beautiful when you don't know that I am watching you Georgie Girl".
Wldrose has a fine a growing collection of "relatives" (found old photos of folks who she doesn't know); she finds them and once she let me name one of them. Maybe we can tell stories about them some late night when we are worn out and the next day is coming on faster than sleep is?