By Jennifer Kovacs
In this age of Internet dependence and addiction, the newest drug for users is the diary site. There are no telltale signs pointing out members of this underground community, but the web addresses drop down on Kent State students' online favorites lists like track marks. They're out there walking across campus, sitting in class, eating lunch. And if you find their journals, you can read about all that you see them do and maybe all that you don't.
The print medium has faded with online access to newspapers and magazines. Communication has suffered with the replacement of phone calls and letters by e-mails and instant messages. The next progression in the sequence has arrived with an explosion of expression and character in the sterile, impersonal face of the Internet with sites like LiveJournal.com and DiaryLand.com. These sites are exactly what their names imply online forums for anyone to post entries on everything from day to day activities to one's innermost thoughts and feelings. And it's all for the world to read.
As the sites grow, more and more Kent State students have started their own diaries or know someone who has. It's the murmur of their existence -- users urging the inexperienced to give it a try -- that buzzes through coffee shops, bars, online chat rooms and campus, luring more in. That's how it all started for four Kent State students.
| Name:
Jeff Mould
Age: 20 Year/Major: Freshman/Exploratory Site: LiveJournal.com Username: ThoreauisdeadBio:
I am the key to the lock in your house |
Name: Lacey Petrovich Age: 23Year/Major: Senior/Psychology Site: DiaryLand.com Username: Sourpusspunk Bio: I eat crayons. I used to eat periwinkle. Now I eat brick red because it makes me teeth look bloody. I just learned how to read. |
Name: Ron VanBlarcum Age: 28 Year/Major: Graduate/Geology Site: LiveJournal.com Username: Xaoc Bio:
So much to tell, so much time to waste, so little desire to write
it. |
Name: James Burke Age: 22 Year/Major: Senior/Biological Anthropology and Psychology Site: LiveJournal.com Username: Mordicai Bio: |
The Set-Up
2001-11-19 - 10:03 p.m. Aloha... I got an e-mail from a long lost friend, Andrew, today, and he has an on-line diary so I figured I would melt in with the pack and have one, too. I'm always the last to know things so I refuse to be the last to HAVE things, no matter if they are incredibly useless, like clear plastic shoes that have soles that glow-in-the-dark. |
Starting a diary on each of the sites is relatively quick and easy. However, with the surge of people starting accounts on LiveJournal.com, the site now requires new users to get a code from an existing member or pay a small fee in order to start a journal. Both sites require members to choose a username, which is the first step in the creation of this new online persona. The forms a new user must fill out are similar - each asking the basics: name, age, gender, e-mail address, birthday, etc. There are different levels of security for members to choose from for privacy from readers and the personal information that is open to the public. In order to personalize the diaries, the sites offer profile sections. I look at profiles before I even read a diary, says Burke. It's only one page and you can actually find out something about the person. LiveJournal.com has a general area to list interests, and DiaryLand.com offers sections for members' five favorite bands, authors and movies. It is through these interests that most users find other members with various things in common and begin to read their journals. I usually search by bands that I like, says Petrovich. It just sort of sets up a certain group of people that would have the interests that I have. Once users find someone they like, that person's journal can be added to a friends/buddy list, which keeps users updated on every post made by people on the list. As for the users' personal entries, they can begin immediately without any restrictions on what they may wish to write.
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