Week 2: Writing Online
1. With an anonymous username, writing about myself online feels very freeing and stress relieving. I think that having an open and nonjudgemental space to just say anything and everything that you want feels very safe to me. I think that sharing our personal dreams, thoughts, etc. is a really good thing not only for our own mental health, but also so that others are able to relate, not feel alone, and maybe even gain another personal perspective that they might not have thought of before. Lastly, I think that there definitely is a point to where someone could overshare and lose their sense of voice. In my opinion, sharing general things about your self is great but some things can be too personal to share with others, and those are things that can make you who you are so if everyone knows them it could make you feel less interesting and/or original.
2. I think people are interested in reading other peoples' journals for two reasons. The first reason could be that they just want to relate to someone else, or they want to learn more about a person because they are interested in them in some way. However, I think the second reason would be a little less genuine with the idea that many people are just nosy and want to figure out what other people are doing so that they can talk about others in order to make themselves feel better. Furthermore, I think that the idea of consumption about other peoples' lives is a very big modern issue especially with social media, because people are always comparing themselves to other people even though what people post isn't usually a clear picture as to what is going on in their lives.
3. In my opinion, most diary writers do write in stream of consciousness mode because they are usually writing about what they are thinking, feeling, or doing and usually just for their own personal good. However, I used the words "most" and "usually" because there are definitely a few diary writers that write more for the idea of what they want the readers of their diary to view them as which isn't always who that person really is. In addition, I think that everyone, not only the writer, can learn a lot from the writers' entries because like I said before, they are able to relate to someone or if they are open minded they are able to gain another perspective that isn't their own.
4. In my opinion, I think that diary writers shouldn't be very concerned with spelling, name dropping, etc. if the purpose of the diary is to just genuinely share their own thoughts and ideas. However, I do understand that many diary readers will take the diary less seriously if it isn't well organized, or has spelling errors, etc. so I think that there is a happy medium in making your diary look presentable but also creating your diary for your own good and not to show off to others.
I agree with your two reasons for question #2. People want to know others experience compared to their own. It can feel like you go through certain things on your own until you look up and see thousands of other people talking about the same issues or even cultural references that you thought only your town or state knew about. People tend to be nosey as well. Humans gravitate towards negative and conflict at times so it can peak our interest very easily.
ReplyDeleteHello, I love that you would agree that writers shouldn't be concern with trying to create a presentable diary but i would disagree that oversharing leads to becoming less interesting or original.
ReplyDeleteI also fully agree with your answer for question 2. Humans have a natural curiosity within us; We always want to know what others are doing or how they live. I hadn't considered how social media had impacted us, so you make a really great point there! Social media has made us accustomed to having this greater access to other people's lives so these online diaries fulfill that desire by allowing the reader a peek into the mind of the writer. I don't agree entirely that oversharing can make you less interesting but I do think it could scare off an audience.
ReplyDeleteWe tend to avoid thinking of ourselves as nosy and use "curious" instead since nosy carries with it a somewhat negative connotation with it doesn't it? I thind Wadering Witer's comment about oversharing is one worth exploring and the ideas you mention in #4. Our we grammar snobs online? Will we read stream of consciousness type stuff or do what we do as readers in other media? Expect organization, grammar, etc..Is content king??
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