Blogs Are Evil

Blogs are evil. Before you get your keyboards all hot pointing out that I am writing about the evils of blogs in a blog post on a blog I created, don’t worry, the hypocritical irony is not lost on me.

I am not saying all blogs are evil, I am just saying that a lot are. Personally, subscribing to dozens of blogs and buying into the philosophies of self-proclaimed experts on a plethora of subject matter in an effort to make myself a better/smarter/healthier/thinner/fitter/more efficient/shinier/polished person, actually made be woefully unhappy. Is there anything wrong with wanting to improve yourself? I don’t think so. Is there something wrong with subscribing to black & white absolutes about the way we should be living our lives? I think there is.

Social media is also a malevolent beast. It constantly bombards us with photos of people living amazing, care-free lives, eating gourmet meals and traveling the world, leaving us feeling hard-done-by and disappointed with our mundane existence.

The truth is, bloggers don’t have universally applicable axioms to our problems, as much as we would like to believe that somebody out there holds the secret to life’s challenges. One blogger’s advice for weight loss might work for some people. The advice might work for you if you have a similar lifestyle, job, number of children, live in a similar neighbourhood, have similar friendship group dynamics, like the same things, enjoy the same hobbies and earn the same wages as they do. Chances are, their advice won’t work for you in the entirety in which it is presented, whether on weight loss, exercise, being a good parent, keeping organised, cooking healthy meals for your family or getting ahead in the workplace. Chances are, life will interfere with that meal plan/exercise regimen/kids’ routine, and when it does, we feel like failures.

The problem is not with the ideas themselves, it is with the absoluteness which they are sold and bought. It is human nature, when presented with persuasive ideas, to buy into them in an all-or-nothing cult-like fashion, and that is what I have a problem with. The internet is full of sugar-free, vegan, yoga, Cross-Fit, super-mom clean freak extremists touting their way as the only way, and portraying those who don’t follow their ‘gospel’ as inferior or weak. Followers of these blogs create dysfunctional communities with evangelical-esk preachy contributors that portray themselves as perfect partakers of the wares and make the ‘lukewarm’ feel inadequate and like failures. It is easy to forget that a lot of the bloggers that give us advice on how to live a very small part of our busy lives do it for a living. This means they have a lot more time on their hands to get it right than you do.

And another thing; if you have 1,276 friends or are following 289 accounts on social media, chances are a small portion of them will be traveling, eating out that night or going through a momentous life experience on any given day. But I promise you, nobody is constantly living in a perfect picture-worthy life.

A survey conducted in April 2017 by Eventbrite, a global event technology platform, found that more than half of people aged between 18 and 34 that had attended an event in recent months had attended the events for the sole purpose of sharing the experience on social media for likes and comments. This means that a lot of social media utopic moments are orchestrated.

Life is a constant shit storm, with an occasional peppering of joy and pleasure. Life is about weathering the storm as best we can. We all live very different lives, and the challenge is to find a way that works for us. We are all doing our best, and sometimes, just sometimes, that is enough. I am only just figuring that out.