Wednesday, January 21, 2004
so i was going through my links last night, and i stumbled upon my friend's site, one i haven't visited for maybe a week or so. this person "resorted into writing a 'crap' entry", a post in which the writer talks about their day, maybe their problems, big or small, or perhaps to just rant their frustration. the thing about this person's post that struck curiosity within me is that fact that he/she called it, "a crap entry".
it may sound childish and pointless to elaborate on this thing, but then, i thought, "why not think about it?" and so i did. i went through many other sites, and i found a common ground for all of them. and i really think that's why people have these sites in the first place.
we write in order to be understood. we type letters into an html table because we hope that someone will come across our thoughts and sympathize with us, we tell the whole world our problems, knowing someone out there will understand you. we risk a whole lot, doing something like this. people can twist the meaning of your words, they can contradict you, they can be completely indifferent to your feelings. but on the other end, someone just might understand you, someone may give you the advice you needed, someone may seek shelter in your words. and so we write.
the feeling of venting to something that will neither agree nor contradict you directly is exhilarating. if a reader stumbles upon a post and they don't like it, then they don't. and if they do, that's wonderful. the point is, the world is your audience. but as you type your flooding thoughts, you can think of only one person who you are writing to: yourself. and that's why you confess things you never could verbally-- you trust your site. but once again, anyone can read what you write. that is the beauty and the downfall of any site.
so a recap of your day, a confession, an embarasing moment, a quote, an inside joke, a fictional story, a biography, a picture, a quiz, a shout-out, a thank you, a secret, a happy birthday note, news, anything-- is acceptable and worthy of being shown off to the whole entire world.
people say "everyone's been so gloomy and depressed," but think about it. of course they are going to write when they are depressed. that's why a sad poem is easier to write than a happy one because the emotions contained in a sad poem want out of the shadows. that's why people have these things. and even if in the beginning, you were planning to create a happier site, of jokes and things like that... you will eventually start to pull in the negatives of life. and why not? it's life as you live it. and if people can't deal with it, then they have abosolute control of whether to read the posts or not.
i guess we all have our audience. but i know most of you are writing for yourself, to rid of all the troubles in your life somewhere... and you picked here.
but there's always someone reading what you say. it's almost a paradox.
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