The Neighborhood
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The sites are easy ways to keep a journal. They're typewritten and log every entry for you to find easily. Pages will never tear, and the ink will never fade. Essentially, they're forever. Really though, the whole point is for someone else to read them, right? Whether it's to keep in touch with friends or an egocentric cry for attention, users of these sites spend much of their time reading and commenting with other site members at home and across the country.
I never get in contact with anyone else, says Petrovich. I just read. It's just like a good book. I want to read it, but I don't want to be involved. I know people that have made really good Internet friends through this and some that have met some wackos you don't want to be associated with. I'm not doing it to meet anybody or for someone to come looking for me. Burke, on the other hand, has met and formed friendships with many people through LiveJournal - he even calls user Scribble, who lives in California, his Internet best friend. The two refer to their close friends on LiveJournal as geographical mistakes. Though Burke and Scribble have yet to meet, Burke has met many other people off of LiveJournal, including a friend from Virginia who met him at Disney World when he was vacationing there. I'd meet pretty much anyone off the Internet; this is just the way it's been for me forever, Burke says. I don't have the same innate mistrust for it, probably because I've used it, and I've actually done this stuff. What is there to have qualms about? What's going to happen? They're going to be a disinteresting person? What are the odds of them being an axe-murderer? I'm the one who's scary. It wouldn't be hard to stalk me, though. You don't even have to invest effort into it or be scary. You can just read my livejournal - the stalking is done for you.
Another huge part of the diary site dynamic is the option to makes notes or comment on users' journals. Though there are ways to regulate who may leave comments on both sites, all of these users have left it open to the public. Petrovich doesn't see anything harmful about this. I think that for every person that is on that website, someone else can relate to what you are saying. I think in a way you're reaching out to those people who can understand where you're coming from. A lot of entries are just bad days, and you get notes back that say ÂI know exactly what you're saying.' I think it's just a comfort.
Though Petrovich has never received any negative feedback, Mould says that comments, positive and negative, are simply part of the livejournal experience. Negative comments are only words - and words are easy to play with, says Mould. It's still feedback. I wouldn't let it affect what I write. You need to take friends online with a grain of salt. Most people are different from how they portray themselves.
In fact, it's impossible to know who one is dealing with online. The pictures used may not even be of the writer. Diary websites are environments for expression -- characters can be easily created and writing often fictional. A lot of people take it personally, says VanBlarcum. I don't take it seriously. I'm inclined not to buy that they're real. How personal can it be if you don't know who they are? A lot of people on LiveJournal are inclined to be okay with being tricked. VanBlarcum believes that most people take their journals to these heights simply for attention. Some people have to speak, he says. They feel their lives are a great story to tell or they are tragic and want attention - all life and personality is to get attention. They're attention whores, and it's easy to be more extroverted and more open on LiveJournal.
Burke admits that he likes the limelight. But that doesn't mean I don't like to share it too, he says. It is an inherently self-centered exercise. I'm vain. I keep a diary on the Internet for everyone to read. I like it when people read my diary. It means they love me, or they are at least tragically interested in me. But, I don't expect people to relate to me because I'm not like other people. I don't need other people to read it, but I want people to like to read it. And it's about reciprocation. There is a degree of interest and, dare I say, caring involved in reading someone's livejournal for real. That means you are interested in the person enough to read their diary. It should be viewed as a privilege, not a responsibility. So, if you want to read my diary, you can.
Fleisher says there are many reasons for people to want to present themselves in such a manner. It's the anonymity of being online, she says. You can present whoever it is you want, and it doesn't have to be accurate. It takes responsibility away from having to be identified. There is a desire to expose without consequence. However, users' various reasons are very individualistic and should not be generalized. While there are many consequences in trusting details of one's life to complete strangers, there is also a therapeutic quality to anonymously sharing oneself with others, and most likely, someone somewhere will be able to understand and relate.
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