Drama, drama, drama

[mslulu]

I was reading this post earlier (linking to it because I think it's interesting. not really required reading for what I'm writing now.) and it talked a little about drama on LJ. This set me off pondering the nature of LJ Drama. For the record, by Drama I'm not referring to trolls popping in randomly just to piss someone off, but issues between friends or "friends" that just blow beyond belief in someone's journal, then go on to affect real life relationships, and I guess online ones too.

See, I consider my journal to be relatively drama-free. For the most part, the inter-personal conflict I tend to have online is with myself. I say relatively, because there have been incidents, but since most of my LJ friends are also RL friends, these are events/issues that would have occurred with or without the journals. In some cases, journaling actually facilitated necessary conflict and conversation where other methods of communication had failed.

And yet, I hear that there's too much drama on LJ. I hear tales of people not speaking to each other because of what friend A posted in friend B's journal about friend C, or of someone copying, relaying information from a locked post to others outside the lock, and various other behaviours which for the most part seem like things that people learn not to do once they're out of their teens. Or am I just naive and too trusting of people?

I guess I'm looking for what other people think. How do you define LJ drama? Does LJ create drama? Is the tendency toward drama directly related to the number of RL friends who read you/you read? Do you have/see a lot of conflicts occurring between non-RL friends? What steps do you take to reduce drama in your LJ? Do you see it as being more prominent amongst younger users, or is age irrelevant? Does the drama on LJ have nothing to do with LJ itself, and is just a new medium for the same BS that has been going on for years in notes passed in class, gossipy phone calls, and the like? Am I just overly naive and too trusting of peopl?

I'm just curious how others see this odd little world we have chosen to exist in.

Comments

[bridgeweaver.livejournal.com]

I think this is being made way too complex. Rule of thumb, don't post anything about someone else you wouldn't be willing to sayto them in person. The same rule applies to what you say about others with them not around. Then, if something does get back to the object of your commentary, you can stand up and say, yes, I would have said that to your face, but I was processing how to say it. This is one of those areas where life really is simpler than a lot of people make it.

[mslulu.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking it's way too complex too. It just baffles me that there are so many out there who have problems with this. It strikes me that any mature, sensible human being can maintain a journal without having a train wreck crash into their personal life, unless that's what they really are wanting.