LJ Idol - Week 8 - LJ Rants

[aggienaut]

   In college I minored in Communications (And History, And Political Science). Now Comm is a notoriously useless major, but I think thats primarily because every sorority girl and metrosexual male took the mass media comm classes thinking they were gonna make it big time on MTV. I took classes like "Organizational Communications" "Conflict Resolution," "Theories of Persuasion" (the only class I had where the professor spent the first day addressing the fact that some people think the very existence of the class is unethical!), "Intrapersonal Communications," "Theories of Cognition," etc. Things which, in my opinion, were quite useful (anyone want to hire me to fix communication in their organization or resolve a conflict?). On top of this add Military Science "Intro to Army Leadership" and "Intro to Army Organization" so I know how to communicate under fire and.. ;D

   This would well prepare me to write a academic analysis of "LJ Style Rants," which is the LJ Idol topic of this week ... but I'm at a beekeeping conference in Lake Tahoe. So I don't have any of my communications books or notes to add big fat citations from (I could, however, tell you all about the sub-lethal effects of pesticides on bees with original quotes from researcher the lovely miss Judy Wu).
   However, I have had three glasses of wine (I actually walked away from an open bar to come write this! --and yesterday I just went to bed early, clearly I am no longer the trouble-maker I once was!) so I guess this could qualify as a rant about rants under the "anything you write after consuming alcohol is probably a rant" clause.


On Rants, LJ Style
   First and foremost, we must address why people blog at all. I believe the reason people blog can be broken down into the following categories:
(1) Expressing oneself, purely to satisfy either the need to vent or the need to feel understood by sharing your feelings with others.
(2) Expositional, ie to convey information. The primary example of this I think is that most of my mother's side of the family (mum, grandparents, uncles) all have LJs (!) and they write entries I believe because they know other members of the family are interested in what they're doing, and blogging is better than the mass emails that used to go around about the latest.
(3) To be read, this is different from the above. For example a lot of humorous bloggers blog to amuse others, rather than communicate information. It seems more often than not for LJ Idol I've written entries that convey information ... but I do it not for the sake of conveying information for the information's sake but to be read. I make no bones about it, I write to be read.
(4) To practice writing. Pretty self explanatory. I get the impression a number of people joined the LJ Idol thing to practice writing.

   Clearly, most people probably write for a combination of the above reasons, or make some entries for one purpose and some for another.

[Poll #1296338]

   When it comes to rants, however, I think we can all agree that people usually do it for the sake of venting, ie just expressing their feelings for the sake of feeling expressed. Rants are usually about something that has been bothering the individual in real life and they either did not get a chance to express themself at the time, it would be highly inadvisable for them to do so (say for example the target is their boss), or it would just be rather socially maladjusted for them to do so (the target was some stranger and its a topic it would have been odd to confront them about). I have a particular rant I'm just itching to do but unfortunately it falls under the inadvisable category I think )=
   I think expressing oneself can be a valuable way to relieve tension and stress. If one feels like at least SOMEONE understands their plight, even if its faceless people off in internetland, I think one is still likely to feel less bitter about perhaps not feeling properly understood or appreciated in the workplace, or such.
   However, there are two potential pitfalls of rants. Both of which pertain to it being found by the target group.
   (1) Dramapocalypse!!
   (2) Especially if you know they are likely to become aware of your rant, or your rant is likely to be read by many people who mutually know them, your rant could be part of a passive aggressive behaviour. That is, not actually dealing with something but acting out in an extremely indirect rebellious and insubordinate manner more likely to severly annoy your target than actually accomplish anything. Being passive aggressive is to be avoided.
   By and large, throughout my studies and experience (In college I was additionally involved in countless clubs and organizational conflicts -- especially as Chief Justice of the student government) I have found that almost invariably MORE communication is better than less. It doesn't matter if its organizational planning, breaking up with someone, or actually firing someone. More justices got their asses impeached off the Court by me than anyone else, since I had to do it for lack of attendence and such and no one else bothered except for political reasons (such as the three attempts to impeach ME ;D ). At first when I was young and naive I tried communicating with the subject justice as little as possible (since it is, after all, a pretty awkward situation putting someone forward to be fired), and that was always a huge mess. Later on, however, I had it down: it was cut and dry and non-negotiable that you'd be forwarded to the Senate for removal if you missed two meetings, and when it happened I'd give the justice all the exact same information I was going to provide the Senate myself, and while Justice Raff* STILL tried to blame me and lied about having a class conflict he didn't have, it was a LOT less messy.
   (* name NOT changed because I don't believe in changing names, ever)
   The same goes for dating. I hate hate hate it when people rather than deal with sending a more direct message decide just to avoid communication until the other person gets the hint. It wasn't until I invoked the magickal properties of flowers that Marla broke a month of silence yesterday to inform me that no she wasn't at all mad at me, we're just over. Thanks Marla.
   In nearly every situation I can think of more communication is better for both parties. Now clearly there are exceptions, such as playing poker, or negotiating something, or not hurting someone's feelings TOO much. But these exceptions are pretty clear.
   And bringing it back to rants, I do think if you have a problem you can possibly address by more direct in-person communications, you should, BUT like I said most rants are about situations where that is not feasible. As long as your motive for ranting isn't passive aggression, I think it serves its purpose of allowing you to vent well.
   But going back to pitfall (1), NEVER post potentially dramapocalypse causing entries in public! I have found that despite all odds, the target person SOMEHOW WILL FIND IT!!!!

   Anyway, now I'm gonna call Judy Wu and see what she's up to tonight.


Picture of the Day

Lake Tahoe
(Taken not this trip but a previous one)

Comments

[boxsofrain.livejournal.com]

I love your icon. I blog because I am an internet attention whore, I admit it.

Now Jenny, I don't believe we discussed her yet, unless she is the one we spoke about this morning?

[kittenboo.livejournal.com]

Dramapocalypse

that's a great word

Judy

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Yeah Judy the bee researcher grad student. She studies the effects of pesticides on bees, I put pesticides on bees. ;D

Dramapocalypse

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

It can be so true O=

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

I should edit the entry to add "I don't blog to express myself, I do THAT by texting boxsofrain throughout the day" =D

[med-kitty.livejournal.com]

I agree I love that word. And it does seem to follow any rants posts that are made by any of my friends.

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Rant posts are the four one horseman of the dramapocalypse

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

I majored in Chemistry.
Ended up getting my degree in Econ, but it was never my major.

[ewok-626.livejournal.com]

You're an internet attention whore too?! ;)

ETA: forgot to change my iconz...

[med-kitty.livejournal.com]

So what are the other three???

[lilmissmagic71.livejournal.com]

Excellent points all! May the Good Karmadillo roll over any Dramapocalyspe that comes your way!

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. I love the point you make with the poll. I've been trying to figure out how to do that in my writing (I love audience participation) and you've pulled it off wonderfully. Great job! :)

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

I was actually a bit suprised by the results, I thought they'd be more balanced, but as you can see at the present moment exactly 2/3rds have selected "to express myself."

Yeah the fun thing about polls is people are more likely to fill out a poll than leave a comment so it gives you a more accurate idea of how many people are reading your entry. Looking at people that have filled out the poll there's some people who never comment and I'd started assuming they weren't reading anymore.

Thanks for the compliments (=

[stormmm.livejournal.com]

If I was a better writer I'd probably blog for the attention. So, I'm pretty okay with my level of entertainment and have resolved to express myself. Also, so nice to see flowers that weren't roses.

[boxsofrain.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love getting honorable mentions!

[boxsofrain.livejournal.com]

YES! I hate getting attention in person, but love it on the internet.

[pavel-lishin.livejournal.com]

Unrelated: any thoughts on this?

http://imagenebula.com/?task=view&id=2149

I, for one, would probably just have looked up how to smoke the bees into submission and moved the barbeque off my porch. I mean, come on! Free honey!

Lol!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hahaha

(1) It looks like a blog post... thats entirely an image? why is that?

(2) I couldn't make out the active ingrediants in his bug bomb, but I would say he's a raging idiot for using any kind of pesticide on something he was about to use for food preparation. I'm not a chemical expert, but many of those pesticides will persist despite even a concerted boiling water / soap wash (and I doubt he did that to his whole BBQ). One of the interesting presentations here this weekend was on just how incredibly persistant pesticide residues can be. So yeah. That guy is a total idiot for using pesticides on a food preparation device. I wish his post was somewhere I could leave a comment so I could tell him what an idiot he is.

(3) At the bottem he says he "thinks the queen flew away." I'm just wondering why he says that. He doesn't really provide any reason for that hypothesis and that hypothesis is almost assuredly wrong. Why would the queen survive when the rest of the bees didn't?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I express myself pretty much by sending boxsofrain a text whenever I have something to express hahaha. That and the occasional filtered entry, since I don't really like expressing my actual feelings for just anyone out there to happen across.

Armadillo Behaviour

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hahaha Karmadillo ... if he/she doesn't just roll up into a ball and hide at the first sign of the Dramapocalypse! /=

Degrees

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Really? You got a degree in something that had never been your major? I suppose that should be possible, though I'd never thought of it before. Is there a story here?

Re: Degrees

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

It was easier than you might think--I got pregnant and could not sit in the chem lab, so I needed some place to use all those math classes. Most of the social science degrees are pretty flexible--I also considered doing history, but econ was faster.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

While I felt pretty insignificant at the beekeeping conference, it was funny Judy was getting CONSTANTLY bombarded with questions because everyone was extremely interested in her research. When they had their research meeting to approve donating money to research projects she got twice as much money as she had asked for, which I'm told is totally unprecedented.

Re: Degrees

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I guess as long as you fit the requirements for the major they don't care if you were declared as it. When I talled up my units senior year I discovered I ALREADY HAD all the requirements met for a Poli Sci minor, that was kind of a pleasant suprise.

[boxsofrain.livejournal.com]

Is she hot?

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Haha yeah that definitely helps, that she was the only cute girl in the room. She says she gets creepy old men talking to her about when they were in the navy and visited Japan.. and got with girls there. As if she wants to hear about that!? Silly creepy old men.

I wish I had a picture of her, hopefully she has facebook.

Re: Lol!

[pavel-lishin.livejournal.com]

1. Yeah, I don't know what's up with that. I guess someone wanted to save it for posterity in one simple file.

2. That's a pretty good point, I didn't think about that. I hope he scrubbed hard.

3. I have no idea what the fuck he was talking about there.

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

I agree with your theory on ranting, and I enjoyed this analysis. But then again, I was a Communications major, too.

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

I think I write for the attention whore fact, mostly...or to practice, or just because I like to write and share ideas, and people in real life rarely have time to pay attention...people here do...sometimes 'cause they're interested and sometimes 'cause they think it means you will in turn read and pay attention to them...these people are easy to spot...the ones who say "comment or I'm going to drop you" frequently.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

And hey, it worked, I commented on your entry and here you are! ;D jk

Like I mention above, I write to be read. I'm not sure what purpose being read serves me though. I don't "comment whore" per se but comments are often about the only evidence you have of people reading your lj. Unless you post a poll (43 people voted? Thats a whopping 11% of my friends-of list! d= )

And to express myself, also like I said in comment somewhere else, I just text boxsofrain every time I have something to express haha. She's a darling for putting up with me.

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

nah---screw those people who only vote in polls...they are major league a-holes.

I would lie and say I read all the entries when I go through Idol, but I don't, and more or less implied that in the green room yesterday....what I typically do on the weekend is click on the names of the people who are on my friend list...then, if I have more time, I get the ones who aren't on my friend list but still comment from time to time...I am putting an all out boycott on voting for anyone who I suspect doesn't read my entries...it's one thing to not like them, but it's BS to not even give them a chance....

for voting, at this point, when there are still plenty of people, unless their entry sucks, I vote for everyone who has friended me...it's the A for effort policy until the crowd thins a bit...(unless, like I said, they totally show no effort and just turn in hot garbage)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I try to always read all the entries in my bracket*, and usually just the ones by people I know I've liked before in other brackets. Also I have a "LJ Idol Contestants" filter on my friends page that I look at. So pretty much before the poll goes up I just look at whats on my filter (which includes people on all brackets), and once the poll goes up I go down the links in my bracket. Also I always make sure to read the last place vote getters in every bracket to make sure no one I like is getting voted out. This is, after all, the ONLY vote that matters.

I've noticed that people by and large loooove sappy posts and those of us who go for humour are really underappreciated, so gotta stick up for team ceativity.

* in re "brackets" - I refuse to use the word "tribe." A tribe is a ethnological group larger than a band but smaller than a nation. Especially since in this game you are more competing AGAINST eachother internally in the "tribes" (ie its your "tribe-mates" that you're competing against not to get voted out) than against the other groups, bracket is clearly the more applicable word.

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

yeah--I do the same with the bottom people

reasons for blogging/livejournaling

[nibot.livejournal.com]

What about "compulsive drive for documentation"? That's a big part of my reason.

Or, "to remember"? I.e. you might keep your livejournal so that you can look back and see what you were doing and thinking at a particular moment in the past. That's a smaller part of my reason.

I guess those could both be subsumed by "to convey information"... But just about anything could fall into that category. What is the written word but the conveyance of information?

What about "self aggrandizement"? That seems to be a big motivator for many bloggers.

What about "to make friends"? "to become famous"? ...

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Thanks Marla.

doesn't this fall into both "Dramapocalypse!!" and your description of passive-aggressive behavior?

NEVER post potentially dramapocalypse causing entries in public! I have found that despite all odds, the target person SOMEHOW WILL FIND IT!!!! Anyway, now I'm gonna call Judy Wu and see what she's up to tonight.

I guess this is a joke?

[nursemae.livejournal.com]

But the Drama Whores are all chanting and trying to bring about the Dramapocalypse!

Lovely picture. :)

this a joke

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Well, as to Marla, despite the fact that I said "they will somehow find it" I think its extremely unlikely she will given that I don't think she's poking around the internet overly much (for example she doesn't have myspace or facebook, much less any other presence on the internet). And as to the remote possibility she does.. I just don't see what the big deal with what I said was. And given that I neither expect her nor people who know her to read it, it doesn't fit my definition of passive aggressive motivation either. I just wrote it to make the entry feel a little less impersonal.

And same goes for Judy. In the unlikely case she finds the entry, I don't see what issue my saying she is lovely would cause.

So.. I don't see what the alleged joke is.

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (=