Bringing Back The Art Of The Blog

Do you remember blogs of the mid and late 2010s? There was a golden age of blogging from journal-like blogs to travel blogs and style blogs. People shared their travels, recipes and journal entries with the world wide web. In a post 9/11 America, Julie Powell started a blog The Julie/Julia Project, in New York City as she cooked every recipe from Julia’s Child’s book “Mastering The Art Of French Cooking.” It later became a memoir and then a hit film starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Nomadic Matt shared travel hacks and Suits actress Meghan Markle had a cooking blog called The Tig.

By the late 2010s style bloggers like Julia Berolzheimer were coming out with their own fashion brands like the Glam Meets Glam collection of dresses. Popular lifestyle bloggers like Rosie The Londoner made their Instagram debuts. And a new wave of local bloggers shared their lives on social media. In Connecticut, the CT Blogger Babes dominated Instagram with local bloggers who had niches in family and mommy blogging, style blogs and foodie blogs. And I, an overwhelmed worker in a corporate office in the mid 2010s read blogs religiously to escape the office drama.

It was a new kind of armchair traveling, from exotic destinations to pretty clothing, yummy recipes and home DIYs. Apartmenttherapy.com gave me inspiration and hope that I too could one day live in a prettily decorated space, even in a studio apartment. I wanted to live a creative and full life like these women sharing theirs. Blogs inspired me when I was planning my honeymoon while bloggers shared pins of their blogposts of Pinterest.

Reading blogs felt like reading letters from friends. Beauty bloggers showed me new ways to style my hair and I saved places I wanted to see from my favorite bloggers. In the late 2010s I started finding minimalism and simple living blogs like The Minimalists and Jenny Mustard, who started podcasts and YouTube Chanels. They influenced the way I shopped and spent my time. They gave me ideas to dream about and aspire to. Video blogs, known as “vlogs” opened a whole new world.

At the time, I had a blog for my small wedding photography businesses, but I started branching out into other forms of blogging in 2016 as a way to cope with my world and connect with people who had similar interests. I started with blog posts for wedding photographers and engaged couples and then started sharing my local New England adventures when we moved back to New England after a few years in Maryland. Before “spill the tea” became a saying I made “Tuesday Tea posts” where I talked about things that interested me over a cup of tea.

It is not coincidence that the first post I really made was on November 1, 2016 when I was feeling overwhelmed with Trump’s first election. In times of crisis, people cope by connecting more to themselves and those with similar interests. In a world that was rapidly becoming darker and more uncertain, blogs were a lifeline of connection. Nine years later, here we are again, this time talking on a new social media app called Threads where we’re all discussing bringing back the blog.

Slowly, I started sharing my other interests and blogged about wellbeing and mental health, minimalism and simple living, crafts, home DIY, style posts and recipes. I was told to “pick a niche,” but as a multifaceted person with numerous interests, I didn’t want to box myself in. That is how I became a “lifestyle” blogger. On Instagram the word was “influencer,” but as a writer and photographer I connected more to the term “blogger” and have been using it ever since. Blogging became competitive though. My little blog become a part of a big sea of bloggers.

I wrote in a journal and carried my camera with me everywhere. I made some journal entries and then started sharing posts that I was told would get more clicks. Things like “Top Ten…” and “Five Ways To…” My blog changed as the world did. Sometimes I posted what I felt inspired to post and other times I tried to post things that I thought other people would like.

I read blogs to escape, be inspired and connect. Cup of Jo and Reading My Tea Leaves . Many of the blogs that I loved slowly stopped posting or posted far and in between. Some are now subscription only blogs on Substack. Slowly, most blogs disappeared. Even the most famous and successful bloggers stopped blogging.

What made blogs so appealing when they first hit the scene more than twenty-five years ago is that they were letters to the world and open journals, places to connect and feel seen. I would like to bring back the art of the blog.

Reels and TikToks became the replacement. Fast and short video clips replaced photographs and written articles. But the thing about social media is that you are under the mercy of the algorithm and what’s trending. And the platform owns your work, you don’t. With the current administration’s censorship, there has been a lot of talk about blogs.

Owning your own website or blog has benefits, the most important being that YOU own it. Knowing that social media can be censored, blocked and even removed at any moment is an incentive to have a space that if all your own. You also don’t have to follow algorithm rules like posting certain kinds of content only at specific times of the day or week. You can post when you want to and what you want to.

If you are a writer or creator, having an online portfolio and blog is always a great idea. This does not mean you have to give up your social media presence. For me, Instagram and Pinterest have always been a way to connect people to my blog. Over the past two years while working full time for a non-profit, I did not have much time to post. I regret all the things I wished to have blogged and didn’t. Perhaps the time off was inspiring though. Because I’m looking forward to blogging again, and this time blogging 100% of what I want instead of what I think other people may want. I want to share more stories and personal blog posts.

I’m going to share my photos, even the “cringe” self-portraits I take with a timer and a tripod. I’m going to share more journal-like entries like it is 2005. I want to look back at my posts and see a collection of my stories and my life and beautiful memories. What made blogs so appealing when they first hit the scene more than twenty-five years ago is that they were letters to the world and open journals, places to connect and feel seen. I would like to bring back the art of the blog.

If you ever thought about making a blog, now is the perfect time to begin. If you used to blog and have stopped, you can start again. And if you simply enjoy reading them, start looking for some new blogs to explore. Together, we can bring back the art of the blog.