I've been thinking and it's come to be apparent to me that there is very little real blogging going on anymore. It's funny because blogging was created as a way to share who you are and all that encompasses. Your thoughts, how you dress yourself, the things you do, your secret hobbies and so on. But in today's blogging world it seems that blogging is no longer about sharing yourself to no one and hoping to find acceptance, but instead it has become a way to make yourself a household name. Yes we live in a high strung, media obsessed society but why does that mean that blogging has to become victim to it?
It depressed me a little when I went to the IFB conference in New York this past September and so many of the forums were on how to make your blog into a sustainable career. Although I understand that many people who do blog hope to do it as their sole career but at the same time it makes me wonder how many people are really blogging because they simply want a way to share themselves and hopefully find acceptance and how many people are blogging for the scheme of things?
I am constantly trying to find new blogs and people that inspire me, interest me, draw more from me and as I wake up everyday to to many emails to count in my message box I am disappointed more and more as I find it's overflowing with "Follow me, I'll follow you" types of messages. Usually when I go onto these blogs, as I do like to give everyone a chance, I often find myself wondering "Are these people really people that love fashion, love experimentation and shaking cages, love expressing themselves against all odds, no matter how hard or different that may be?" and usually I find myself saying no, they aren't.
What is the point of running a personal style blog if all your wearing is what I can find on the Forever 21 mannequin? I find it baffling that these bloggers even generate enough interest to gain readers, but the idea of new new new is always a good way to get people coming. As I've said time and time again to me style is not about owning the newest items but about having an innate sense of self. When I look for a new blog I'm looking for someone who has that; even someone who is trying to find that and just aren't quite there yet. But in every way that they are exploring that they are staying true to who they are, what's made them who they are and that is something to commend. So many websites today are just a blur of gifted items, the same trends seen over and over again in the magazines and on pop up ad's, and it gets to be ridiculous. Props to the P.R. people that noticed bloggers were the next best way to sell anything but it's a sad day when you see that bloggers fall victim to it completely.
Don't get me wrong, I completely understand that there are blogger-product relationships that can work fantastically to benefit both sides, as well as the readers, and I commend the people that have learned how to say no to the products that aren't quite "them". I hope that as our media frenzy society continues that there will be a plateau point where we realize what we're doing, what's happening and how badly we need to get back to the core of things. I hope that people won't be so concerned with fame that it's all they even care about anymore. But what I hope most is that the people who are out there blogging their hearts away and not getting the viewership they truly deserve don't stop, because once they do it's all downhill.
