I would consider myself a blogger. I blog three times a week and spend FAR too much time scrolling through bloglovin to read Chloe Plumstead’s views on feminism or contraception, or to see what jumper Josie bought this week. But instagram is making the social media world even faster. I can show you the new pair of trousers I bought THE NEXT DAY and who needs to read a full post to see where I got the shoes when you can just tag them in the photo.
Instagram has speed. Fast fashion, fast views, fast drama. It all happens so quickly and so rapidly.
But is the Instagrammer killing the blogger? I feel like breaking out into song ‘video killed the radio star’ but its like the 21st century version.
Even though I blog twice a week and spend far too much time on other blogger’s pages, I spend a heck of a lot more time on instagram. I upload once (sometimes twice) a day and comment on HUNDREDS of posts. I chat with my followers and send them links to the top I wore in that picture or the really good place I went for lunch. I can showcase my outfits in a perfectly thought out grid and OBSESSED over how my feed looks.
So where does that leave the blogger? Are we fading into the background as some archaic notion that was popular back in 2012 but today, not so much. When I look at how the instagrammer is affecting the blogger I do worry about who comes onto my page. I worry that they wont want to hear my views or read the full post when they can just see a pretty snap of it on instagram.
But in the same way, I bloody love blogs. I love being able to see someone rant about something they care about or RAVE about their new asos purchases in a full post where they share pics and lay it out in a funky way. I love interacting with other bloggers and seeing what they have to say about what I am chatting about.
I love being able to do a full shoot and show you ALL THE PICS on a blogpost, rather than feeling like my feed is getting repetitive. But I feel like you really need to entice people into your blog. You need to give them a REASON to click on the post and read what you have to say. That’s why blogs are getting bigger and better and more interactive and better designed.
Despite the amount of time I spend on instagram, I dont want to consider myself an instrammer. First and foremost, I am a writer. That is my passion, that is what I started my degree for and that is why I wanted to give myself this outlet to focus on my writing. I love writing down my thoughts and feelings and you have NO IDEA how good it feels when someone tells me that I have inspired them.
What worries me is when I neglect my blog and just pop onto social media to say ‘look at my new jacket!’ rather than rant about where bloggers stand in the internet community. I worry that instgram will cause me to be lazy with my online presence and forget about why I started it in the first place.
So lets remember why we came onto the internet and transport ourselves back to the 2012 when we didn’t even know the names of the writer instead of just liking a pic of a pretty girl on the gram. Here’s to the blogger in us.
