March 4, 2011

Bloggers unite

Yesterday, I had fun with some fellow bloggers at the Francis Ferent event, which I'll post about soon! They had told me about a certain article about bloggers in a Belgian "glossy" magazine called Feeling. When someone asks me to describe the magazine, I'd say: a magazine for 50 year old housewives who aren't really into fashion. 

But Feeling has changed... A young man, whose name doesn't deserve to be on this blog, wrote about fashion blogs. You're probably thinking: oh, sounds like fun! No, dear readers, not at all... In this article he describes bloggers as narcistic snobs who misspell every word on their blog. But let me tell you one thing: we're human, just like everybody else. It's clear to me, that he hasn't really seen the best blogs yet. This article is just pure jealousy and frustration towards bloggers.

Thanks to Kym for scanning the article! Read Stéphanie's opinion too, it's quite good!



Let me sum up his four complaints:
1. Bloggers are mindless narcists

He complains about how a blogger takes 'having your own opinion' to a whole other level. Which basically means: we talk too much about ourselves. I quote: 'Dear bloggers, having an own opinion doesn't mean that you should be constantly talking about yourself. Announcing to the world what you've taking out of your closet that morning, is really not that interesting.'

Let us begin with what a blog really is: 'A blog (short for weblog) is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption.' 

Personal, huh? Well, what do you know? What a coincidence that most bloggers talk about themselves in their own personal online diary...? That's so weird :o (I hope you're sensing my sarcasm here...). Not all fashion bloggers personalise their blogs because they write about fashion in general but so what if they do?! I started my blog to gather all the things that I liked on one platform. I think my blog isn't that personal sometimes although I think some of my readers would like it to be. Conclusion: don't generalise every blog out there.

2. Content is often an unnecessary luxury

It bothers the writer that everyone could start a blog as easy as drinking water. Well, okay, that also bothers me. But why? Because most of the people who want to start one now, do it for all the wrong reasons. The digital age, where bloggers mean something is a fact. Most of the people surrounding us don't even know what a blog is and other think that bloggers get free stuff 24/7. Let me tell you one thing: we work hard to write about a certain piece and  we are surprised with every invitation we get. I personally never thought my blogging skills would take me this far but I take what I get and enjoy every moment of it!

3. Bloggers are inveterate snobs
A few accusations towards bloggers
- thinking their opinion is as important as the ten commandments;
- writing about catwalk fashion only;
- showing off their clothes while name-dropping.

Again:
- a blog is something personal, so don't accuse us of having our own opinion.
- STOP generalising blogs. We don't talk about the same thing every day!
- not every blogger is financially capable of wearing high fashion brands.

4. Mispeling dusn't hurd

Apparently every blog misspells a word. Yes, we do that sometimes. We don't have someone correcting our mistakes before they hit the rotary press. Do you also see, dear readers, that this man is generalising every blog? What's up with that. I've got the feeling that he has seen one of the worst blogs ever and made his conclusion about blogs in general.

Only the best survive...

This young man is a step ahead of us. He's already seeing the end of the tunnel, which means: bloggers out of the picture. I'd say: let's not play psychics too soon and let's keep on blogging until we drop dead!

P.S. Sorry for the pictures being so big! I had to because otherwhise you couldn't read the article.

8 comments:

Sté (StyleLab) said...

Great piece! He shouldn't be able to get away with such accusations that easily! #bloggersunite!

KT said...

Agree on that one. Very well written Afro, even I had the urge to shout: GOOOO BLOGGERS! Haha, way to go!

Imelda said...

Groot gelijk en heel goed geschreven!
I couldn't agree more!

ironic said...

Please check the difference in uses of "to" and "too"

Afrodite Trevlopoulos said...

Thank you Ironic, for being my personal editor! That's what I meant with 'we're human'.. we all make some mistakes :p

LOVE AESTHETICS said...

ojaa! die ziet blogs echt als een bedreiging

MELVIN JONCKERS said...

Jealousy... That's all I can say about that article. Well writter Afrodite, and like you said, we're all just human, nobody's perfetc ;)

XOXO
Melvin Jonckers

http://melvinjonckers.blogspot.com

Couture said...

Ik ben het zeker niet eens met wat de Feeling schrijft, maar soms vind ik het toch ook ergerlijk dat mensen die geen boeken over mode bezoeken en nooit naar modetentoonstellingen gaan, hun blog een modeblog noemen en dan naar alle events mogen gaan. Ik heb het hier zeker niet over jou! Ik vind gewoon dat er moet gekeken worden naar hoe je met mode bezig bent en niet of je de "juiste" mensen kent.
Judith