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When WordPress, Wix, and BlogSpot hit the scene years ago, I’m not sure they realized the Pandora’s Box they had opened. Suddenly, every 20 to 35-year-old woman with a computer in her house was typing away pumping out blogs named “XOXO Marc Jacob’s Macaroons” or something equally stupid.
There was a small hope that maybe this trend would be short-lived, but years have gone by and apparent that it is nowhere near dead. A girl I went to high school with recently started a fitness blog that she promotes on her social media. I visited the site to see what she was all about, and I cannot even stress how poorly put together the whole thing was. I’m fully convinced she made the layout in Microsoft Paint and just went with it.
Even if the layout isn’t bad, the content of every local’s blog seems to be curated for no one in particular. Seventeen paragraphs preceding a recipe for boxed brownies, or a detailed description of a gender reveal party are a dime a dozen. Everyone is suddenly a professional photographer and insists on sharing an entire album of photos featuring their children in Adirondack chairs. It’s not original, but somehow, they’ve convinced themselves that it is.
What’s so sad about these sites is that the writers are obviously putting in so much effort and time to write these posts, and no one is reading it. Maybe their mom will skim each time they post, or they’ll get the sporadic visitor like me who is less interested in content and more interested in critiquing. Friends and family will stop by from time to time and comment nice musings, but no one is sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for the next post to drop.
These blogger mommies and wannabe influencers all think they’re going to make it big though. Hopes of being the next Cupcakes & Cashmere float in the back of their minds, but it’s not going to happen. As hard as you try, the window of opportunity has passed. Lifestyle blogs are now so oversaturated there is no way you can make it a full-time job unless you already have a famous name you can brand off. Hell, half of these people aren’t even dishing out the $7 a month for an actual domain name and site hosting. It’s pipe dreaming at its finest.
I understand the necessity of blogs in certain situations. I have a design site that I suppose could be categorized as a blog so I’m not opposed to the concept as a whole. If you want to showcase your work, professional writing, keep people updated on a medical journey, etc. it makes sense. Making posts about how you’re trying to be more intentional with your journaling this year, that’s a little more cringe-inducing.
Some of you might be saying, “Kell, if you hate it so much, why do you keep reading these blogs that bother you?” This is a very valid question, and the only answer I have is that I don’t know. Like a terrible car crash, I want to look away but I simply cannot. I am extremely online, and sifting through the terrible to find the good is part of the job I suppose.
I hate these blogs, but I should also point out wanting attention isn’t wrong, I completely get that. But just make a Twitter account instead and reign yourself into the confines of 280 characters. You can upload a picture or two now and then, but you won’t be bombarding us with pages of nonsense that take up an insane amount of bandwidth loading your hi-res scripted font logo.
While I can’t make anyone delete their blog or force them to migrate to another social platform, I encourage you to follow the T.H.I.N.K. model featured on posters in elementary schools across the country. When you make your site, ask yourself, is it True? Is it Helpful? Is it Inspiring? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind? But more importantly, is it really lame?
The answer to this last question, unfortunately, is almost always yes. .
Respond
Kell
future soccer mom of America (AKA I drive a Volvo.) Miracle is my favorite movie and it should be yours too.
@backpackfanclub
@instagram
This is one of the most ironic posts I’ve seen on this site
Pot meet kettle
At least it was different from the “Do/Don’t Drink IPAs/Milk” blogs…I guess?
Sir, don’t drink IPA Milk.
IT’S MY BODY
this is one of the best comments i have ever read on this site. Well done sadgrad.
MY BODY, MY CHOICE
“No one cares about your shitty blog”
Yet here I am. In the comments. Of your shitty blog.
You’re so right, I am the sole proprietor of Post Grad Problems, every post on this site was written by me.
My writing on PGP:
Is it True? Yes.
Is it Helpful? Well… no.
Is it Inspiring? I mean, I hope not.
Is it Necessary? *shakes head violently*
Is it Kind? Uhhhhhh, sometimes, yes. Most times, no.
Is it plagiarized? What an egregious question.
We want justice for Todd but it’s not what we need
*It’s not what Todd deserves.
It helps me get through the work week. Therefore, it’s also necessary for my sanity.
The best we can hope is that the random thoughts we cobble together are entertaining enough to get other miserable folks through their work day a bit easier.
I’m always amused when a girl begins a blog by writing about how hesitant she was to “open up”, but it’s something that she has “really considered for a long time” and acts like this blog is such a monumental step in her life.
RT and Fav. “Bloggers” are our of control. One minute some girl is getting 120 likes on a vacation pic on Instagram and the next she thinks she needs to tell people what she’s doing and what they should be doing/wearing/eating. Anytime I see a blogger I instantly think of her as Girl.
What is the most powerful natural instinct?
A) Birds flying south for winter
B) Salmon swimming upstream to birthplace to spawn
C) Millennial white girls inspired to create a lifestyle blog / become an Instagram influencer
D) me looking over my left shoulder every time I walk past an attractive lady
If I only got 120 likes on a vacation pic I’d erase all online presence.
I’m still happy when I push over that 11th like, TBH.
When it goes from individual names to a number of likes…that’s he good stuff
Oh come on. What’s your average like per picture? Also, I always assume people with public accounts and 16 hashtags have 3 real friends and get most of their 200 likes from random people with nothing better to do
Totally agree with you. Who cares if randoms like your picture unless you get your self worth from likes? When I got an Instagram a few months ago, I purged my social network and only added people that I’ve spoken to in the last year. Ended up being about 60 people and counting. But now, whenever I post a good picture, at least half usually like it because these are people that actually care about what’s going on in my life.
I don’t know who follows me although probably lots of dog accounts.
On Instagram I follow: people I know, design inspiration, a few outdoors accounts, & a few fitspo (Onnit types). All the insta-models can quit following me looking for follow backs.
I took a look at one of my ex’s instagrams the other day (yeah, judge me) and her recent photo of her and her new bf had like ninety-eight (98) likes. I felt bad about myself, then I looked and 6 were people she knew and the other 92 were Russian accounts or whatever and I didn’t feel so bad. I’m happy that out of my measly 110 some followers when I get 25 likes they’re all from people I know which is better imo.
Like 150? Idk man. Being in a sorority + working for a fashion designer = likes.
I wish I could “meh” this a thousand times
Shrug emoji
That’s why I don’t write columns anymore. Instead, I write little morsels of sexiness in order to incrementally make people realize that most thugs are dumb and that many people forget that we live in a world that’s literally covered in feces so if they think they’re “the shit”, they’re sort of right but at the same time so wrong lol
Things* hahaha
Well most thugs are probably dumb too.
Valid
This is such a nonsensical take. For every guy on the PGA Tour, there are thousands of guys grinding and practicing who will never make it. You don’t see Jordan Spieth telling people who suck at golf to just quit. Blogging is the same thing. Everyone puts their product into the marketplace and the cream rises to the top. Thats how the talent is found. Just because you “made it to the pros of blogging” by being published on a Grandex platform doesn’t mean everyone else beneath that should just quit.
So I’m a professional blogger since I had a submission published 2 or 3 years ago? Brb. Off to update my resume.
Grasping at straws to put anything and everything you remotely were associated with on your resume. PGP.
What is your WordPress @?
@madison
The worst part is when they post to social saying, “I know it’s been awhile since my last post!” like we’ve all been waiting for something new.
I’m squinting at that photo trying to figure out if that’s a m-f-ing roll of FILM next to the camera.