"What is it with you, anyway?"

That's probably one of the one-liners from Star Trek that will remain with me for the rest of my life -- a wry remark by McCoy to Kirk on Rura Penthe in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, when he sees that once again, Kirk is up to his skirt-chasing ways, as always.

I wish I could say that same thing to all of the people I've met or seen who put their journals on "Friends-Only". I'm not talking about most of the people I've seen here on Blogger...I'm talking about the people I've seen and met on the infamous Journal-Site-That-Is-Not-To-Be-Named.

On their front page, LiveJournal bills itself as "...a simple-to-use (but extremely powerful and customizable) personal publishing ("blogging") tool". And in many respects, the purpose of a blog is to arguably provide a public insight on your thoughts, be they on science or current affairs, life in general, or just what happens to you in your-day-to-day life. The very concept of a blog is, arguably, to provide a public outlet for your own feelings and thoughts. Think about it. "blog" is a slang contraction for "Weblog". Web + Log. "Log" of course, being obvious, but "Web" clearly refers to the fact that you're publishing this "Log" of yours to the Internet. And by its very definition, the Internet is a communal place where privacy is deemphasized in favour of openness and group discussion. So, extending that logic, a "blog" is by its definition a record of your thoughts which is purely open -- or at least, as open as you wish it to be, within reason.

So I then make the case that people who put their blogs, be it here or on LiveJournal, on "Friends-Only" are doing something which is antithetical to the very idea of a blog. If they're all "Friends-Only" then what are they doing publishing to an Internet site in the first place? Better to keep a pen-and-paper journal that you show to your friends, or tell them all about your thoughts and feelings via email. At the risk of sounding snobby, it in a way smacks of pretentiousness.

~

Now, I understand that it's their right to do whatever they want with their journal and it's their business how they want to express themselves...not yours. But it seems so cold, and even arrogant in a way. I've met people through LiveJournal and Renee's message board who I'd love to get to know better, but seeing that "I am putting my journal on Friends-Only from now on" post is like a big red Stop sign to me. It says to me that no, I don't want nor need your friendship, thankyouverymuch. I don't care about you, I only care about me and my own little inner circle of friends -- and no, you can't be a part of OUR group.

Which brings me back to the communal nature of the Internet today. If the Internet were a neighbourhood, we'd all be freely exchanging all of our ideas, thoughts and feelings...our doors would be unlocked, and your next door neighbour could drop by anytime, whether it was to borrow a few cubes of sugar or just sit down for a chat and some tea. But the Climate of LiveJournal is different. It's colder, more impersonal, more inhumane. It's a neighbourhood where all of the doors on the houses aren't just locked, but bricked up and sealed off with razor wire and chain-linked fences, and houses are linked only by deep and dark subterranean tunnels. Newcomers are treated with suspicion and even malice.

It's the difference between Toronto (well, Michael Moore's Toronto anyway) and a suburb in L.A.

But anyway. I'm keeping my LiveJournal and keeping it asystolic, yet still open and left at the entry about dad...if only as a sign of protest against LiveJournal's collective xenophobia. In the meantime, why don't you drop by my place here at Blogger? My door's always unlocked, and if you need to borrow a cube or a cup of sugar, I'll always be happy to oblige.