No one blogs anymore.
Okay, more specifically, no one writes anything anymore. And even more specifically, not a lot of people keep up with their personal online journals anymore.
Gone are the days where I would log onto one of my favorite blogger's intimate corner of the Internet and read about a topic she so passionately felt about. I used to read about the quality of clothing and how having an acute awareness of it would make your wardrobe all the more better. I'd read up on topics like gardening, home care, beauty, style of course. Topics on film and music. All from a girl in her late teens or early 20s, still in school and writing beautiful pieces during her free time in between classes and homework.
Now we're all just documenting.
Not just documenting, though, we're recording meaningless vignettes. I'm talking about the Snapchat "mail time" hauls where we get a three minute glimpse into all the free shit makeup artists are sent and then never use only to clot in their unopened packages in their bathroom cupboards. I'm talking about the "plant tours" and "what's in my car!" videos on YouTube. I'm talking about the endless (and I mean ENDLESS) Asos/Topshop/BooHoo/Zalando/H&M hauls where girls show off how much they bought (c'mon, that's what we're really watching - a small amount of YouTubers actually style what they purchased in their haul).
Do not get me wrong, I love a good Asos haul. After an eight hour shift at work I really don't want to read a lengthy personal essay (sorry). Some YouTubers I subscribe to are enjoyable to watch in their weekly vlogs, documenting their daily life with their token photographer boyfriend, drinking endless cups of tea and "nipping out to the shops" for some $35 mascara at Superdrug. But it gets old after a while. It gets boring. It gets to be too much when everyone is producing weekly blogs. I start to look for something a little more stimulating. One YouTuber I do enjoy is Sammi Quinn. She regularly vintage shops (almost her entire wardrobe is thrifted) and while she does record Goodwill or Buffalo Exchange hauls, she intricately edits a fun and retro lookbook and styling portion set to a funky 70s jam.
But even then, I miss reading a thoughtfully written excerpt on a cool, personalized blog (not so much a "website" or a personal domain - it feels too monetized). One of my favorite bloggers, Hannah-Rose from Sydney, Australia doesn't even have her blog up anymore for me to reminisce in the archives. I used to come home and get a small rush seeing she had a new post about how a new Sophie Dahl recipe transported her to the English countryside or about the newest British It girl on the cover of Vogue UK wearing an oversized Angora jumper and Wellies makes her feel like it is possible to dress down and still look effortlessly chic. She had such romanticism in her writing that I really, truly miss. Camille Rushaneady from Childhood Flames hasn't posted anything since May and even then, she wiped her backlog of bedroom outfit shots and daily musings and updates on her homemade garden and knitting projects up until 2012. A slew of my favorite style-blogs have cobwebs on them and have been abandoned for Snapchat and Instagram.
When did the migration start and why am I just now noticing? I remember when personal blogs took off in 2008 and 2009. That's when this lil corner of the Internet started (it's had many incarnations but it's always been the same domain). But I don't recall noticing when my favorite writers started dropping off their Blogspot and Wordpress accounts. And why have we started neglecting our online journals? Is it because the audience is lost? I know every loves a good picture book (Instagram) and mindless video (Snap and YouTube) because I love those too. I just wonder where to go for a small, well written, very personal blog.
I think all of those "small, well written, very personalized bloggers" have grown up. I think they've gotten jobs: (Hannah-Rose from Capture the Castle now works at Harpers Bazaar Australia), Garance Doré has her own book published, Leandra Medine from the Man Repeller is a house hold name now. Maybe that's all that happened. Everyone grew up and moved onto the next best things (or next best apps more appropriately). Which is normal. It's nature. But here I am, being nostalgic as hell and taking the time to write out a personal essay. I don't Snapchat, I don't post YouTube videos, I'm active on Instagram but I try not to over-share the boring bits.
To make a long story short, I miss the small and intimate postings from a girl sitting in her room typing on her old MacBook computer about how she dreams of following in the steps of Yves Saint Laurent and his posse and kicking it in Marrakech. Or something like that. I understand not a lot of people like to read anymore, which is why Instagram and Snapchat are so, so addicting (trust me, I get it). But there doesn't seem to be a balance of text and pictures anymore. I'm still over here, in my tiny spot on the web trying to make that balance. And I'm still on the look out for others that do the same.