(no subject)

[geekchick]

I was pondering the nature of LJ "friendships" earlier today while I was thinking about pruning down my reading list a bit. (In the end, I ditched a ton of communities and syndicated feeds but left all the individuals except for a few who'd deleted their journals or dropped me from their own reading lists at some point.) This is mostly a placeholder for me to try to remember to come back and write about it later when I'm not trying to get to sleep, but in the meantime, Terry touches on the same topic. Go read. (It's coincidence, I swear.)

Conveniently, this is also an excuse to show off my new "links" icon from today's Pearls Before Swine. And on that note, to bed.

Comments

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

thanks for the link to Terry's post.

Part of my problem is that I do or did know most of the people on my fpage socially before they joined LJ. So it deepens a current relationship but as I flist more and more people it becomes harder and harder to meaninfully keep up with anyone.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Part of that may have to do with how one uses Lj. I see it as a place to muse out in public. That people I know happen to do the same thing is a lagniappe.

So I don't feel my keeping up is diminished, but rather enhanced.

TK

[luridprovidence.livejournal.com]

well, I have good news now. Our local paper started carrying Pearls Before Swine ( O:-) ) *joy*

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

that was an interesting post. i should probably comment there instead of here, but i don't know pecunium at all, and unlike on usenet i am always somewhat shy about commenting on strangers' posts on LJ. (not like you and i know each other much either, *heh*.)

it struck me as interesting that i've been in no danger of mistaking LJ befriendings as actual friendship. i've gone through the whole odd disconnect about pseudo-intimacy before online, however -- maybe i've just learned my lessons already. or maybe the disjointedness of it all makes me not even get close to feeling on intimate terms with people i only know on LJ -- i only see what they decide to post in their own journals, and as comments in mine, and sometimes as comments in people's LJ where we overlap; unlike on usenet where, when i take an interest, i can check out at length what else the person has to say in various newsgroups. while i do get to find out more intimate details here, the overall picture seems to me much slower in development. i see it in myself -- i post about smaller and more personal stuff as my daily life provides, but i am much less likely to write about deep philosophical issues. and my friendships have tended to form over such discussions rather than over sharing lots of little titbits -- that comes later, when i already am friends with somebody. deep discussions have too short a halflife on LJ for me to even bother commenting much when others do these days. the interface is just too klumsy for sticking with a conversation for days, nevermind weeks.

which is a sadness, because i think LJ would be cooler than usenet if it facilitated that sort of discussion better instead of focussing so much on what everyone wrote today, and yesterday is out of sight already.

i've made quite a number of friends on usenet (and prior to that on PLATO). i met both of my current partners on usenet. i haven't made a friend yet on LJ. it's not that LJ isn't "real life" -- i've not made any friends in some places i've lived either. it's that the format and i don't fit all that well, despite it appearing like an introvert's dream at first glance.