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Best headline ever!!
May. 23rd, 2003 10:39 pmIn today's Globe and Mail: "New study shows married men have a 40 per cent lower risk of death." Women see no such benefit, so I think gay men come out the best here. They (potentially) get to keep their husbands forever, while straight men have to keep lining up new wives as the old ones croak. ;-)
I've started writing private entries as well as public ones, and the private entries are much easier to write. Not too suprising a revelation, I suppose. In the private entries, I don't have to worry about hurting anyone's feelings or boring my readers or sounding frivolous or pretentious. Writing is much easier when I'm not trying to be thoughtful, sincere, witty, and interesting. I just hope livejournal's security is half-decent. *grin*
I'm reading Barthes' Mythologies now. Lots of interesting material about how myths speak to the contradictions of our society. The idea (and another article read earlier today) seems to hint at the possibility that online community is one of those myths, prompted by simultaneous, conflicting desires for individuality and belonging. Certainly some of the authors I've read will agree, though I know quite a few others will argue that belonging and individuality are not inherently contradictory at all. Indeed, one of the arguments commonly made is that a key feature of community is the recognition and acceptance of each individual as a whole person, rather than in a single role. At the same time, many would agree that social control is also a key feature of community, which could potentially place limits on individual expression. I'll have to think about it more. In the meantime, I still need a good theoretical framework for the issues of space and place that could be applied to cyberspace. Any suggestions?
I've started writing private entries as well as public ones, and the private entries are much easier to write. Not too suprising a revelation, I suppose. In the private entries, I don't have to worry about hurting anyone's feelings or boring my readers or sounding frivolous or pretentious. Writing is much easier when I'm not trying to be thoughtful, sincere, witty, and interesting. I just hope livejournal's security is half-decent. *grin*
I'm reading Barthes' Mythologies now. Lots of interesting material about how myths speak to the contradictions of our society. The idea (and another article read earlier today) seems to hint at the possibility that online community is one of those myths, prompted by simultaneous, conflicting desires for individuality and belonging. Certainly some of the authors I've read will agree, though I know quite a few others will argue that belonging and individuality are not inherently contradictory at all. Indeed, one of the arguments commonly made is that a key feature of community is the recognition and acceptance of each individual as a whole person, rather than in a single role. At the same time, many would agree that social control is also a key feature of community, which could potentially place limits on individual expression. I'll have to think about it more. In the meantime, I still need a good theoretical framework for the issues of space and place that could be applied to cyberspace. Any suggestions?
