Just when my mother thought I could not possibly spend more time online, I took up a habit that swallows my spare time: livejournal, a highly extensive online network of personal journals.

Previously, I had never written in a journal much, finding myself beset with an impressive lack of discipline in keeping a diary. But there was something about livejournal.com that hooked me, pulled me in. Maybe it was the tidy layout, all crisp blue and white lines. Perhaps it was the artsy 100x100 pixel personal user pictures. More likely, it was the presence of a �friends list�, a webpage that is a compilation of all one�s friends� latest journal entries.

On the surface, the process of owning an online journal is simple. Select one of the many journal hosts online and register the name you want to go by. Once you register, you can start writing. A choice of privacy settings allows you to choose whether your entries can be read by the public, friends only, a smaller, hand-picked group of friends, or no one besides yourself. Assuming you don�t choose the latter, comments trickle in from readers on your latest entry.

I find that while I wait for comments, time does not trickle at all � it rushes. I read my �friends list� and respond profusely to friends� new entries, hoping to inspire the trickle of comments on my own entry to become a river.

In all of this fun and sharing that occupies so much of my time, there is a challenge, however. As with any human interactions, the content shared on an online journal, can provoke drama as well as comments.

In part, the drama stems from the partial anonymity that being online brings � while usernames signify one�s identity, the inhumanness of corresponding via text makes it much easier to argue. And baring one�s soul, even through a medium that is a shrine to such sharing, is a dangerous business. Particularly in such a medium where the level of privacy can be chosen, some think that an opinion should only be shared with those to whom it is easily digestible � �It is YOUR journal, but we are the ones who have to read it.�

This brings up the dilemma of self-censorship.

While self-censorship is a more obvious issue for people who keep high-profile, more politically oriented journals, it is still an issue that anyone who keeps an online journal will eventually have to come to terms with. There�s that wonderful story or idea one has been thinking about � but it could upset a friend. Or, alternately, one would really love to tell this awkward, embarrassing incident about themselves, but someone could come along who has the motivation to create social havoc. And of course there is the worry of a 3 a.m. knock on the door and a nice man saying �Answer a few questions for us, Miss Gumerman.�

Nonetheless, the privacy setting on my journal entries will almost inevitably stay at �public�; even more vicious comments by the busy Anonymous do not dissuade me from sharing with anyone interested. On the other hand, I do consider what I say when I am typing, particularly after a few entries have blown up in my face in regards to even what friends have said in reply. While the words still spill out of my fingers, I am more discerning as to their order, and how tactful I am being � both to myself and to others � lest I find that I am suddenly the laughingstock of the school or the object of many glares.

Of course, even though my livejournal is very public, sharing my username here is a step farther than I really want to go. It would be nice to be able to show my face around town.

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