Well, if you want to get particular, a character played by Hillary Duff introduced me to blogging. The character? Holly. The movie? The Perfect Man. In the movie, Holly was a nomadic teenager whisked between cities while her mother was on the hunt for....get this...The Perfect Man. To self-sooth during these constant relocations she created a blog titled Girl on the Move where she shared the twists and turns of her life with the world. It was a personal diary, anonymously shared with strangers.
I fell in love.
I wanted a place on the ever expanding web that could live as a time capsule for my life. That is what this very corner is. Its unfiltered, raw, random and lacking the shine of a heavily curated Instagram feed that appears to be the growing trend among bloggers.
For me personally, I love writing blogs about my own life just as much as I love reading the tales of another's, the only issue? It feels like nobody is even writing about the normalcy of their own life anymore! Gone are the days of a personal web diary, we are living in 2019 where monetization is the name of the game!
These days is seems that blogs are now nothing more than lists of products to buy, tips on how to wing out some liner or a how to guide to brushing your teeth.
Tonight I spent some time scouring Blog Lovin' looking for a new blog to read. After pulling my hair out at the lifestyle page, I began searching different phrases hoping to find a window into a strangers life. I started with "First Date" hoping to find a hilarious tale of a disastrous dating mishap, or the retelling of a date that started someones personal love story. Instead I was met with post after post, list after list of what to say or not say on a date. It was all the same, it was all written to be easily shareable, and therefore monetized. There was no personality, no anecdotes, no spark.
After a few different searches I was left without a blog to browse and a realization that the diary days appear to be long gone. I feel as if I'm on the hunt for 2005. A time where blogs devoted to the very practice of how to monetize your own blog didn't exist and people didn't log on looking for their stay at home career.
Bloggers wanted, aspiring influences need not apply.
