Videos, photos and text

At last count, I had about 140 alerts open, of which a couple of dozen are actually generating entries. Journals give an insight into someone's life by written text. We all hold down restrictions what we write about, what we divulge to the world (or to our readers) at large. Or not. Some writers are quite open, and hold nothing back. Others (I have to count myself among them) only open on certain issues.

Photos expand the view you get of someone. You see a face, a view, an environment. Jan, in her latest entry in Serendipity, showed herself being crammed out of her seat at the computer desk by her dog. I have shared hundreds of pictures of the island of Lewis and its main town, Stornoway. Many have posted pictures of their homes, of improvements or lack of them.

Personal videos are few and far between. A moving image is the closest you get to someone on-line. Lisa (Please don't take life for granted) posted two videos on Saturday, showing her room and general living conditions. The relevant entry has now been taken down, and she'll be going private. I've posted videos, made of photos; I've also seen videos in which people make an entry by speaking the words.


An on-line community like J-land is restricted in its communication precisely because you don't see or hear each other, and a wrong word in the wrong place can have more serious consequences than in a face-to-face environment. Again, because you're dependent on what the other person decides to share, wrong conclusions can be drawn.

I know I regularly return to this theme, because it lies so central to a community like J-land, its strengths and concurrently, its weaknesses.