So, I’m writing this blog post from my honeymoon in Mexico. What does that mean? Two things. One, my wife is currently on the beach which is where I want to be and consequently two: this might be shorter than usual. Another, third consequence has just become apparent to me and that’s that the Spanish keyboard that I’m using is very unfamiliar.
Anyhow, this is just a bit of an expansion of a shower thought that I had a while ago about how we share our lives on the internet, and how we’re getting worse and worse at it.
I remember back in college, everyone I knew had a LiveJournal. Like, everyone. If you’re like 12 or something and don’t know what a LiveJournal (or ¨LG¨as the kids would say back then) was, it was basically just a simple blogging platform. You could customize the look and feel of your LJ, set moods, and write blogs. As with everything, there were a million LiveJournal Quizzes, with topical things like ¨which member of the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar are you?¨(that’s a Matrix reference if you’re wondering), memes like Peanut Butter Jelly Time, and most importantly, blog posts.
From my friends sharing their favorite movies (9to5’s own Scott kept his LJ going far longer than most, with his posts going all the way to 2008, check him out), to complaining about their day, to dropping massive social drama bombs, it quickly became the way to share you thoughts and feelings online. I remember how many conversations began with ¨did you read _____’s LJ post?¨. The thing that stuck out to me was how well thought out these posts were, sure they were jam packed with the sort of teenage drama you would expect from a group of teenagers given a space to vent freely and publicly about their perceived woes, but these posts were often paragraphs long. People put time and effort into what they were writing. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
