Online journals: why do you read them?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Becky Says Come and Chat : One Thread

Tell us why you read online journals. Did you find one by accident, as I did, then go looking for more? If you have an online journal of your own, did reading others inspire you to start one?

-- Becky (becky-says@diaryland.com), April 09, 2001

Answers

Response to Online journals; why do you read them?

How can I tell anything about what has been so wonderful for me in such a short space ?

For my birth day in 1999 Heather, my wife, gave me a Webtv set. Reading occupied a bunch of my time but I was aching to communicate with others, aching to travel places and see people impractical for a 78 year old man to get to.

I surfed the net and did e-mail quite a bit and visited art museums in far places, Did some searches, played some games, yadda, yadda. For the life of me I just can't remember how I fell into any journal, my best recollection was Al's Nova Notes, from there I followed a link or two and from there, more and more.

I started answering questions in Al's forum, and in Columbine's open pages he kept for intercommunication, Bonnies Rabble (now The Chattering), Sandy's Dirt Road Ramblin'. Even in journals that didn't have a forum, there would be things that interested me and I would e-mail back and forth with people.

We spent A Christmas in Eugene, Oregon with our daughter once, she set up their computer so I could write a bit. She and our other kids have been bugging me to write about how things were when I was a kid. So I wrote several things about the old days, proofed them, did a bit of rewrite and thought, "Old man, you are maybe a tad better than I thought.

Back home I started thinking, this would be a good place for me to think out loud (more or less) and try to to figure myself out. Then I discussed this via e-mail, with the people who I consider are my mentors and mentioned doing a diary as I had seen a bit about Diaryland and thought it would be a good deal for this klutz to use for the exploration and talking with no one interrupting. LOL

Receiving encouragement from all, I thought, "Well, what the hell, I'll start one -- it might last a week, a month at the most and having said what I had thought was my piece, I found that my fingers would lead me to the keyboard every day and they would do the talking. I never saw such a bunch of blather, but I take credit for what they did, and I am glad. Becky I'll bet you are sorry you asked !

-- Denver doug (ionoi@webtv.net), April 09, 2001.


Response to Online journals; why do you read them?

To add to previous. Journals are better than any book, they are there, they present an ever changing scene, the lives written are great, they make me think. I encounter different lines of thought and sometimes they make me change my mind about something. Best thing to do with my spare time I can think of.

-- Denver doug (ionoi@webtv.net), April 09, 2001.

Response to Online journals; why do you read them?

No, Doug, I'm not sorry I asked! Al's "Nova Notes" was, I believe, fourth on my list of discovered journals. And I first heard of you through your posts to Al's forum. I enjoy reading your thoughts,and am glad you're writing out your memories for your children...since they will enjoy having the record, and your putting them online means your recently-adopted sister in North Carolina gets to read them, too!

-- Becky (spam@beckysays.com), April 09, 2001.

Response to Online journals; why do you read them?

Becky, this is not an easy one to answer. It's almost as difficult a question as "WHY do you write?" and the infamous, "WHAT do you write?" I'm not sure there's one answer to any of these.

I have always written journals (book journals, not online). But I did find my first online journal by accident (sort of). I was lurking at the British Pub (a message board for Angliophiles) and someone mentioned John Bailey's journal. I went to it - and poof! I was hooked! Have read it almost daily since.

Decided after a bit that I'd give the online thing a try. Started at an AOL website, but after several months of writing and loving it - I lost it all when upgrading my AOL to a newer version. This turned me off writing online for a while. But I still read.

Then I found Themestream and thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It was so simple and user friendly. Skipping around from writing to reading and back again. Then that went bye-bye recently. Back to surfing the web and looking for another site. Finally found a site that looked interesting and am in the process of creating my own pages there (http://journal162407.homestead.com/index.html).

But back to WHY do I read online journals? I think because it's interesting to share another's life when it is so "different" from your own. It's not like reading your next door neighbor's journal - at least not to me. And of course, jounalists like to write - so you share that common interest also... and if photography and art are included - well, then I'm hooked.

-- Sharon Hartdegen (SHartd@aol.com), April 29, 2001.


Response to Online journals; why do you read them?

I started reading my sister's journals as a young child (unbeknownst to her). When she was in 9th grade and I was in 7th she started hiding her journals better, and I no longer had that source of entertainment. As an adult she let me read some of her old diaries. My first online diary was that of C.Bowles (cbowles11). I found his diary through a link at a forums site that I frequent. I did go looking for more and did start my own journal which I don't write in very often.

-- Dena (vagrant@crosswalkmail.com), October 14, 2001.


Response to Online journals; why do you read them?

I first stumbled on Annette's diary, Blackberry Creek, when I was at work and we were given access on our PC's to the internet, this must be about, I would think, 5-6 years ago. I had no idea until then that people wrote diaries. I now read many, have about 30 in my favourites, don't get to read them all every day mind you! Annette doesn't seem to have written anything for ages, bit concerned about her. Have often thought of writing a diary myself, but not sure I have the necessary committment!

-- Diana (dianahrichards@yahoo.com), May 13, 2002.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ