Many of you will probably know what I'm talking about when I use the term "LJ-cut." In fact, more students would probably be able to identify Frank the Goat in a line of suspects than Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
But if you don't happen to know the goat of which I speak and his mystical ability to take the young-adult nation by storm, I'm referring to the Web site Livejournal.com, a modern subculture unto itself.
An online blogging community, Livejournal provides its users with a personal journal where they can broadcast their private thoughts and feelings on the Web to whomever they please.
Other websites, such as blogger.com and diaryland.com also provide online journals, and many websites (deadjournal.com, ujournal.org) are spawns of the LJ phenomenon, but Livejournal rings truest both for its setup and originality.
One of the great things about Livejournal is the extent of creativity it allows each user to express. Someone from California that you wouldn't have normally known will have the most interesting view on life. You can see the posted work of talented photographers and painters from the other side of the world. "Lord of the Rings" fanatics will have entire mood themes devoted to the many emotions of Smeagol. "Harry Potter" readers can come together with fellow Gryffindors on LJ communities and post their Harry-Snape romance fanfiction. Some people's journal layouts are so elaborate and beautifully constructed that I wonder if they ever get up out of their computer chair.
While those journals are enjoyable and have a purpose for being on the Net, I find my humble friends' pages and posers who actually take themselves seriously to be much more entertaining.
Many blue-collar journalists use it to log their daily events, such as writing down what they ate for lunch that day and whether or not it digested well, and with whom they would currently like to make babies. Then every once in a while someone will try to be poetic and will spring up a vague two-liner on your friends page.
His kisses taste like Sobe.
Cat on a hot tin roof.
This is sometimes followed by a high-contrast picture of the user's feet, or a random tree branch. Extra points if it's in the middle of winter.
A new trend on Livejournal is the rating community. Someone who's failed as a person in real life starts a community in which they judge whether other people are cool enough to be in the community. Entrants submit a brief survey about themselves, including what kind of music they like (the more unknown, the better), their favorite dessert, their views on abortion, and a slew of forlorn-looking self-portraits taken at artistically obscure angles.
The members then proclaim their love or intense disgust of the opinions proposed, and whether they think the entrant is ugly or not. The entrant then gets a big "Accepted!" or "Rejected!" image made with fancy writing and some random picture of Marilyn Monroe. I've steered as far from those communities as possible for fear of finding out the truth.
Another facet now available on Livejournal is the phone post. Users call and record themselves talking (Lord knows who thought up that one). Imagine the fear I felt the first time my friend's voice came blasting out of my computer speakers to complain about how she had just sat on an excruciatingly painful thumbtack.
Some people use their journal to work things out during tough times with the support of friends, or grapple with the idea of a higher power . (I remember once posting, "Today I told God I didn't believe in him. Now he's going to destroy Disney World.")
Livejournal in fact becomes another medium for self-discovery and finding acceptance in the world. It's a tool for those who want to create something substantial, or funny, or find significance in events that are normally lost in day-to-day conversation. Perhaps the reason why I haven't been able to stop updating mine for the last four years.
