Why LJ Changed (for me)
Apr. 18th, 2012 07:29 amI posted a comment on a Dreamwidth entry where I mentioned a bit of Why I think use of LJ has changed. (In reality, it's not specific to LJ: I think it applies more to every social interaction that we have.) In short:
"I know that for me personally, the thing is that I value my privacy more now than I did a decade ago. I'm wantonly open with most of my life -- but I've become mature enough and sure enough in my thoughts that I no longer want to open every thought I have up to another 150 people to tell me what's wrong with it or second guess me; I no longer want to engage in the active debate about what I'm doing with my life."
(Note that I don't think that all people used LJ in the same way I did, so don't take this as an indictment if you still use LJ :) It's just an observation that the tone of conversation that I took here changed as I got older.)
In the past, my blog was tech stuff; my journal was personal/private stuff. These days, I don't share the personal/private stuff publicly.
I still read LiveJournal -- other people use it to share some details of what they're doing, regular updates on life, etc., and I still enjoy the things I read here. But these days, I don't really know what I'd post. I could post life updates, but I'm really not sure how much people care (or even if people still bother to read this); in the past, I cared about archiving things for historical reasons in this journal, but I've changed that approach because:
1. Who the hell is ever going to read it?
2. I document a lot more via pictures these days instead.
So I guess, the question is, dear readers: Is there a part of my life you wish you could keep more up to date with? Given my LJ's status as a log of my life for the past decade -- what status do you wish you could know more about? (More likely: people are just happy with the status quo.)
"I know that for me personally, the thing is that I value my privacy more now than I did a decade ago. I'm wantonly open with most of my life -- but I've become mature enough and sure enough in my thoughts that I no longer want to open every thought I have up to another 150 people to tell me what's wrong with it or second guess me; I no longer want to engage in the active debate about what I'm doing with my life."
(Note that I don't think that all people used LJ in the same way I did, so don't take this as an indictment if you still use LJ :) It's just an observation that the tone of conversation that I took here changed as I got older.)
In the past, my blog was tech stuff; my journal was personal/private stuff. These days, I don't share the personal/private stuff publicly.
I still read LiveJournal -- other people use it to share some details of what they're doing, regular updates on life, etc., and I still enjoy the things I read here. But these days, I don't really know what I'd post. I could post life updates, but I'm really not sure how much people care (or even if people still bother to read this); in the past, I cared about archiving things for historical reasons in this journal, but I've changed that approach because:
1. Who the hell is ever going to read it?
2. I document a lot more via pictures these days instead.
So I guess, the question is, dear readers: Is there a part of my life you wish you could keep more up to date with? Given my LJ's status as a log of my life for the past decade -- what status do you wish you could know more about? (More likely: people are just happy with the status quo.)