[One can only review so many pages in a row before one has to take a short break.]
A Monday Morning meme on toast, brought to us today by deedeebythebay, who wrote:
If you didn’t start a Live Journal for the sole purpose of being an attention whore and having everyone pity you because of your sob stories, put this in your LJ.
Well, I didn’t. So why did I start my LJ? Initially, it was to be able to comment upon ellipticcurve‘s entries without being anonymous. But I rapidly grew to enjoy it. So why do I post. To me that’s a much better meme than the “put this in your LJ” type. So, here’s the new and improved meme, for folks to use if they wish:
Why Did You Start Your LJ Meme:
Provide five reasons why you started your LiveJournal and you continue to post.
The Answers:
- It provides me an audience for my observations. In the past, you used to go to the water cooler to comment on the oddities of life. We don’t have water coolers anymore. LJ provides a place to share those observations.
- It provides a community of similar people. In the past, USENET served that purpose, but one needed to visit multiple communities: soc.culture.jewish for the Jewish stuff, misc.kids for the parenting stuff, misc.transport.road for the roadgeek stuff. LJ provides that community all in one place.
- It provides a place to vent. There are simply times that one must let of steam about what is happening in life. This is not to elicit pity or attention, but simply to vent so as to release the pressure (think of a pressure cooker). It is much healthier to do so in a forum such as this, than to take it out on your loved ones, or to crack up.
- It provides a place to improve one’s writing style. The adults (i.e., those out of high school) on LiveJournal have learned that how one expresses oneself is very important. LJ provides a place to practice that writing; the style of writing that one used to get in long letters, but we don’t get anymore. Hopefully, the high-schoolers on LJ may learn from the adults, and improve their styles as well.
- It provides a good way to keep in touch. LJ is an economic way to keep in touch with family and friends. When my father was sick, I was able to inform lots of people on his status with minimal effort.
So those are my reasons. What are yours?
