Saturday, June 27, 2015

Thoughts from a Plane

I've just gotten home from a my first ever trip to Europe! As always with travelling, I began to think a lot about life, emotions and purpose. Particularly, I was wondering why I was neglecting my blog even though I once loved blogging so dearly. 

For a quick backstory, I've had a blog since I was about 13. Not this particular one, I've had several over the years, but I've always enjoyed it. When I first started, blogs were used as online diaries. It didn't really matter if anybody read them, but it was your own space online that you could customise and express yourself. It was written in the format of journal entries that were very personal, and because it was likely there was not a large audience, very raw. 

A few years later, and bloggers began to make an income through their sites and are now able to create businesses off of it. There are now a lot more blogs online, and communities have formed, which is wonderful because it is based off of our interests and things we love and are passionate about. However, as with all things, as blogging became more popular and more people began to start their own blogs, there also developed a not so good side to it all. 

I read a lot of blogs. I love it. I don't read magazines or newspapers, I read blogs. Because it's from one human to another - a connection is made between two people without corporate edits and this need to appeal to the masses. But as I discovered more and more blogs, I began to see the same posts, the same words, the same ideas being filtered and regurgitated across pages that I felt like blogging lost its authenticity. There is almost a prototype for bloggers to portray this perfect image of themselves; with witty sentences, perfect arrangements, white backgrounds and fresh flowers all of the time. Or the 'stay home, eat pizza and watch Netflix' type. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just there seems to be premeditated personalities that people are classified into or classify themselves into, and individualism becomes lost along the way. Comments have become generic, you can even tell if someone hasn't properly read through your post and have only commented so they can plug their own site. 

I feel like blogging has lost its raw and personal element to it, which is why I fell in love with it in the first place. I discovered I no longer loved logging on to my blog because it was starting to become like other media, washed out and uninteresting. I want to see the personality in blogging again.

4 comments:

  1. I completely agree with your thoughts. My first blog was also very personal [quite frankly very embarrassing!!]. Blogging has in some ways adopted some elements of other social media outlet like Instagram and Facebook where the highlights are shown and yes, it's not as real anymore. But there are still some gems, just need to filter through a lot blogs to find them!

    Nat | Dignifiable

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    1. That's such a good way to put it - the comparison with social media. You're right, there are! I'm being a little too negative in this post, because there definitely are amazing blogs on here!

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  2. I agree, sometimes I see the same content in multiple blogs. The are some that actually still keep genuine & not generic, those are my favorite one's. There are a lot of small blogs that have being blogging a long time now that still keep it chill & I enjoy that. Be yourself & keep blogging in your own style. :)

    Mafer, Concientizando x

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    1. So right. I wish people would let their personality shine instead of regurgitating information!

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