Sometimes I wonder

[chani]

What's the point? What's the point in doing this LJ thing again? 

I can't tell you how many times I have been about to quit. 

Because I had a dream, you know. It was to create a place where we could gather and discuss screen stuff around a virtual cup of tea.  I wanted to use the web in order to hold a salon as Julie de Lespinasse or La marquise du Deffand did in the 18th century. We would have discussed movies and television as their guests used to discuss books and ideas of the Enlightement at the time.

But overall I failed. 

The only times people really gathered in here were when the topic was about kinks or about commenting/lurking/de-friending because they felt curious, teased or in need of explaining themselves...which means they came when it was not a salon but rather a playground. It was cool, but it wasn't what this LJ was supposed to be.

 I've indulged myself with playground stuff, I've posted memes when they were connected to the Jossverse or to movies, or just because I knew some of "my friends" liked to learn things about their flist and it was a way to connect -which is good- but I could have done the very same thing on their LJ. 

I'm all for the Internet to be a place of sociability, but it's something I can have elsewhere, on boards, on my friends' LJ...


So what's the point? 

Why should I keep on updating? Does anyhting of this  still worthwhile? Has it ever been?

I can't help thinking that somehow, somewhere, I made a mistake or somewhat lost my way...

Comments

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

You see, this is where I want to challenge you, pet. As far as I can see, LJ is actually a far more secure way of writing a personal diary than having a locked book in the bedroom.

I never said it wasn't secure, I only said it was not secret, was not meant to be secret. The fact people could come across your journal in RL is irrelevant here, btw I don't want to scare you but LJ is not 100% secure either, LJ can be hijacked and I know someone whose LJ has been found out(by co-workers!), there's always a risk to be discovered by someone-who-isn't-supposed-to-see when you write something down. But it's simply a matter of different purposes I meant to point out.

Personal journals used to be for the writers' eyes only. LJ entries are "displayed" online while old diaries were carefully hidden. You used the verb "share", Chrissie. Thoughts, secrets, written on a diary weren't meant to be shared while LJ by nature is all about publicity.

I know that many LJers say they write mostly for themselves, and I believe them actually, it's definitely a mirror. However they write online and don't usually make the entries private, so they basically expose themselves to others' eyes, they seek them even. I am not saying it's wrong (you explained very well how therapeutic it can be), only that it's revealing a social tendancy and it's completely different from what a diary used to be...

The only similarity I can find would be with "journals" made by professional writers, or celebs, and meant to be published as books...made to be published actually. Or diaries written by people who might have thought that through their journal they would remain something of their life after they passed away. Although there's still a big difference and it lies in the immediacy that the Internet gives, and the reciprocity that LJ provides with its commenting tool.

Immediacy is also a symptomatic of our current society.