Blog Envy, Overblogged and Blogger Burnout: The modern day Blogging Health Crisis
Though it can often seem like a one way stream, blogging is far more complex than that- every blog post I write is researched and involves checking sources online and speaking to people- and in return, I get comments and respond to them. Through researching what I write I end up on a lot of different blogs- some science, some lifestyle and through this all I get a general picture of what other people are writing and thinking about. Problem is, for every blog that contains poorly placed graphics and bad spelling I’ll find one amazingly lucid and eloquent one written buy a fourteen year old with photographic skills which are far more advanced then mine.
For every event I go to or party I discuss someone else will have been to a better one in a cuter outfit doing something zanier- and I get serious green faced blog envy. My flat is a not a showroom, I haven’t dusted in a long-time and my photos aren’t arranged in cutesy artistic spreads on the wall- they’re placed wherever I managed to find some Blu tac. My life is not a showcase of aspirations, it’s comprised of mundane things like getting Boots Advantage points and moaning about excess Easyjet charges. My real life doesn’t compare to all these whimsical day in the life blogs, and don’t even get me started on ‘Outfit of the day’ posts as sites like Chictiopia and LookBook lead to massive feelings of inadequacy.
When you add to this the amount of blogs which enormously emotionally over share, you’re bound to feel a little bit stressed whenever you venture online.
Think of it this way-when I read certain blogs I expect certain things. I love the twee cat stories, boyfriend drama, casual sex flings and then- bam. A bloggers mother dies, their dad gets cancer,they try BDSM, all fine and above board for you to write about should you wish to, but when it’s very out of tone with your blog* it throws me. I don’t know what to do. My light reading has unexpectedly had a heavy veneer placed over it and though I want to comment I’m out of my depth. You own the blog- you can put whatever you wish on it, but as a reader it sometimes feel like you’ve overblogged- shared too much with the anonymous public and we don’t know what to do. I cried over someone’s blog post last week- in context**-and though that was understandable, I don’t want that to happen when I’m expecting a discussion on the merits of tea cosies versus towels (note: I don’t actually care about this topic). Read more…
