Whilst it usually takes quite a bit to actually offend me there were some major points of the article I felt were actually damning to the blogging community as a whole. You see I always thought Cosmo was one of them outlets that supported bloggers, gave them a platform and honoured them through the Cosmo Blog Awards. I always felt they were on “our side” so to say. But reading through the post that was riddled with stereotypes, bitchness and the wrong use of “Your” – I was disappointed to say the least. (Especially because I believe the post was actually written by a blogger too).
Let me give you my 2¢ because I guess that's what us bloggers do..
“1. We won't let you read our work. But we want to know that you want to read our work. We're craving that more than all the likes.”
Whilst I still get a little shy when someone I know lets me know they’ve read my blog, I will never NOT LET someone read my work. Listen if my brother is interested in reading about the latest drugstore foundation that has made it’s way into my make up collection then good on him. Let’s be honest we all love support from our loved ones. Why would I not let you if I want you to?
“2. We love to text long. Come on, words are our thing. Everyone enjoys an essay reply at 8am, right?”
This has to be the one point I can relate to. I do love an essay of a text but my love for long winded, detailed text messages has nothing to do with my new blogger status. Best believe I was that 15 year old school kid who memorised the whole keyboard layout on her phone to type long texts to her friends under the desk at school and go unnoticed. Again, this point makes no sense to me though, do you understand the shortening skills we have now developed thanks to trying to fit the best attention grabbing title, a link, an image and a couple of hashtags all within 140 Characters to promote a post?
“3. We'll say we have deadlines to get out of stuff. But the truth is we've run out of clean floor space for framing our Instagrams, haven't had time to tackle the dishes for the past week, and a night in washing out our dry shampoo just sounds like heaven.”
A deadline? To get out of something? No, us bloggers are just like everyone else. If we don’t want to go or do something we can just say, why do people assume all bloggers are total home bodies who hate to leave their house? Also, my mum would kill me if I left the dishes for longer than an hour let alone a week!
"4. If we get free tickets to something cool, we'll probably try turning it into a date. Yes we're trying desperately hard to impress you, but hey, we're still chill… This ain't no t'ing."
No. Just no. This makes no sense. Who does this?
"5. We'll act annoyed when you do finally read our work. But then spend the entire next day trying to casually bring it up…"
Again what is the writer’s obsession with not wanting people to read their work? Do you know how much my tweet analytics go up once my boyfriend’s dropped me that quick Retweet and how nice it is for him to compliment my writing style? (Not to mention I’m never mad when he reads my wishlist and decides to treat me lol)
"6. Coffee. Just coffee."
Yes. Because every single blogger lives up to that stereotypical white room, macbook, pretty notepad and black coffee tumblr image.
"7. We know loads of other bloggers… And yes, we like to think we're better writers than the lot of them, but don't ever diss her post. We might only talk to her on Twitter, but we've got that girl's back!"
Yes I’ve got to know a lot of different bloggers thanks to the amazing twitter community but I personally can’t never remember a time reading someone else’s post and even thinking “I’m a better writer”. Who has a boyfriend who would “diss” a bloggers post? Listen, this article is getting worse and worse.
"8. You'll get a lot of free booze. There's always a launch party, networking event or bloggers gathering that we'll need a plus one for. And yes, there's always free prosecco at these things. Draught beer might be tough though... sorry."
Who brings their boyfriend to a launch party to get drunk? Blogging is a business for some so the same way you may have a corporate job in the City and millions of Networking events to attend. I don’t think bringing your partner for some free booze is your first thought when you consider who to take for your plus one.
"9. We don't want to hear about that amazing post you read the other day. But yes, we want you to WhatsApp us the link, so we can read up on our competition. Quickly!"
Bloggers are not threatened by other bloggers. The majority of us just aren’t. That’s the great thing about blogging; it’s so personal – We are in our own lanes, with our own content and with our own voice. By all means send me a link to a blog you enjoyed reading but no, the blogging community REALLY isn’t that bitchy.
"10. Our mobile's battery life is directly connected to our mood. No we're not scrolling Twitter and Instagram for fun, this is research! Don't expect us to move more than three feet from a plug socket if we're dipping below that crucial 20% mark."
“Our mobile’s battery life is directly connected to our mood”. Do you guys seriously think I wake up at 7am feeling 100?
"11. If we're still together on you're birthday, we'll be writing a post on that aftershave, you just happen to love. Because you know, we live off freebies."
First of all its “Your” not “You’re”. Secondly, I love “a freebie” as much as the next person but no, as much as people assume we don’t just write about any random product just to get a freebie from the company. Do you understand how difficult it is to write a post about a product you don’t actually personal care about?
"12. Yes we spent the entire day in our pyjamas covered in biscuit crumbs. Because we can't all afford to constantly work in that artisan coffee shop round the corner."
The writer of this blog spends way too much time on Tumblr. I spend my Sunday in my pyjamas and biscuit crumbs whether I’m blogging or not. Making a Murderer can also have that effect on people.
"13. We probably had or still use a pseudo, and yes, we think its genius! Like the time we used Jean Jacket to launch our fashion blog. Sue Flay to prove we were a dedicated foodie and Jamie Dodger, well, just for the LOLs Yes, you're correct to be giggling. Thank you."
"14. We're generally pretty confident. Independence and self-belief are our thing."
These clichés are killing me now. People are pretty confident in general, independence and self-belief are a lot of “people’s” thing. You don’t just become a blogger and instantly ooze confidence, you know?
"15. We've probably considered dating that Twitter fan you feel weird about. But don't worry, after he retweeted that awkward blog post about the date, we also feel weird about him."
I’m not even going to comment on this one. W T F?
So there you go Cosmo. Please “up” the quality of the posts on your site, please stop adhering to every stereotype out there (even though I don’t even think dating a “fan” is even something associated with bloggers to begin with) and stop working against your fellow content makers.
At the start of this post I quoted Mr Drizzy Drake and said I might be mad that I gave this attention because this post may drawing more attention to a post that may have set out to cause controversy. The title itself may have been used as “Clickbait” and if so I feel for it left right and centre but as a lover of the community that’s built around bloggers across the globe I think it’s time these lame stereotypes are put to bed and bloggers get the recognition they deserve. So no, we aren't all just coffee drinking, freebie grabbing, confident but not wanting people to read our posts - Kinda people.
It is a very good blog about dating , so informative and nicely presented.
ReplyDelete