The emotional, melodramatic, this-is-my-life blog. Let’s
call them Life Blogs.
We’ve all seen them. Most seem to be penned by underage
teens and young adults. They are surprisingly abundant on blogging sites like
Wordpress and Tumblr, whose user-base has a younger age range than sites like
Google’s Blogger and Google+.
An August 2011 survey estimated that 13% of U.S. adults
have joined Google+; it was projected to have 22% of U.S. adults in a year.
However, the age for joining was lowered from 18 to 13 (Jan. 2012), which may
account for the growing number of whiny life-documenting blogs seen there.
Tumblr, A microblogging platform
and social
networking website, is most popular with the teen and college-aged user
segments with half of Tumblr's visitor base being under the age of 25.
That’s a lot of teen angst.
But for today, I will be focusing on Wordpress, which has an audience with wide-ranging ages.
I’m not talking about blogs with thoughtful, significant,
and/or funny content about the details of a person’s individual life. Good
writing, especially, can give insight into the mundane aspects of everyday life
and cause reflection and revelation. What we’re dealing with here seems to be
an extension of Twitter, a blog dedicated to the trivial issues in someone’s
life, an online space meant for venting and whiny complaining.
One example of this type of blog, found on Wordpress, is
username Pandaclouds’ blog “I am dramatic.” It’s aptly named! One of
Pandaclouds’ posts is titled “That was weird.” and is a short exposition on her
(her profile pic is pink so I can only assume it’s a she) emotions during the
month of January. Sadly, not a single fellow blogger even liked this post.
Another example of a Wordpress-hosted Life Blog is
username AppointedMan (talk about narcissistic!) called “HarsH ReaLiTy.” One of
his posts is titled “3:47 AM…” and is a detailed account of insomnia and a
random dream he had, and its apparent meaning.
I’m not saying these blogs don’t have valuable content. In
fact, some of the articles are witty, useful, and creative. However, the
majority of these posts seem to catalog emotions, complaints, rants, and other
moody things.
AppointedMan obviously believes he’s appointed to share
his opinion on the world, and his life, with everyone. Clearly. Interestingly,
this guy has graduated college and is actually older than 30. Woah. I would’ve
never guessed.
Language shared by both blogs includes words such as “can’t”
and “guess” and other informal contractions. Much of it seems to be negatively connoted.
Most of the posts, if not all, are written in first person and heavily feature “I”,
“me,” and “my.” The tones can range from happy to depressed to moody to
over-contemplative, depending upon the author’s mood at the time of writing.
Most of these blogs use multimedia sparingly. Words are
often the choice method to communicate “feels” (emotions) in these posts.
However, some authors include gifs, photos, even handmade poems and art. Song
lyrics seem to be a favorite.
So, what does it take to have a Life Blog? The basic
elements:
·
author can be any age
o
must be deeply connected to emotions/inner
turmoil
o
must be able to communicate emotions (skillful
writing not required)
o
must complain at least once a week about
something
·
posts must include opinions/feelings
o
can included art/song
lyrics/poetry/pictures/videos to communicate this emotion
o
can included mundane details about life
o
can include sweeping philosophical theories about
life
o
can be about nothing substantial at all
As far as blogger feedback goes, comments must be
respectful of the author’s feelings. The author reserves the right to his/her
opinion, and may not like being addressed or told to “suck it up.” Mostly, they
just want to be heard.
And there you have my anthropological study of Life Blogs.
Note: Due to the rather negative review of these blogs, I
have not put up links. However, they can easily be found on Wordpress.com.
I have to say reading your blog posts are very entertaining and you have a very unique way of describing things in a way that is both funny yet informative. The one thought that I was left with at the end of reading your post was, How many of these people actually want others to read what they are writing? I look at blogs as sort of online diaries. A diary’s (the old fashioned kind where you actually had to put a pen to paper) purpose is to reflect on the day or week you had and to express your feelings and let them free in sort of a therapeutic manner. It’s also a way for you to look back on your life and remember what you did and how you felt years from now. It must have been helpful because teens used to risk their parents or siblings finding their diaries and reading about all their secrets. Now days with younger people growing up with the internet and blogs they might see an online blog as the normal way to record their lives. Instead of writing it down in a book, the technology age we live in is teaching them to type it up online. How many young people actually think others are going to read what they are writing? A large portion probably do want the attention, but there have to be some that just want a place to write down their feelings and vent. I can’t wait to find out what happens with all of these young people’s blogs in a couple years when they get older and look back on what they wrote so publicly. The idea of writing your life out onto the page of a blog reminds me of the TV show Awkward, where she writes down the intimate details of her life for all her friends to see. I don’t understand why some people do it, but I can see how it is slowly becoming normal to create a life blog.
ReplyDelete