This might open a can of worms but here we go.....
Dear everyone who has a hatred towards bloggers and likes to call us a waste of space;
If you're wondering where this post is coming from, it stems from a couple of rants, comments, whatever you feel like calling them, that did nothing more but express the dislike or hatred that some people seem to feel towards bloggers and feel the need to slap all over the Internet. As someone who is obviously a blogger myself, while I can 100% respect people's opinions and understand that not everyone will understand or like what I and many others on the Internet do, some of the things mentioned in these various posts struck certain nerves with me, and there were some things I just wanted to say in response.
I won't be naming names or highlighting where I found these sources, just simply drawing out some of the points in the comments that I just thought were quite misinformed or simply wrong.
One of these posts started with 'why bloggers are a waste of space'. This probably should have hurt me a little more than it did, but instead I simply had to laugh. Not just because of the words that followed, but also because I thought of all the influence bloggers are having in the world today, so clearly having, and couldn't understand how anyone could think that people who are clearly having a big influence are a waste of space. If my views, opinions and comments are so useless and such a waste of space, please tell me why major brands choose to pick up bloggers and get them to promote their product to their audience; actually I can tell you why. The number of brands and companies who turn to bloggers and Youtubers alike these days to promote their products, causes and messages is continuing to increase, and I don't see this trend halting any time in the near future. These brands are realising that bloggers are reaching the everyday consumer in a much more personal way than any celebrity or A-list person can, that they are more relatable than big Hollywood names. So as much as you might want to call me and many others on the Internet a waste of space, I'm pretty sure your favourite brands certainly don't think so.
Reading some comments from another post made me nearly cry with laughter, because my background basically tore this post apart into tiny, tiny shreds, and frankly goes to show how little some people actually know, or bother to know, about the world of blogging before writing these things.
Basically the comment went on to say that bloggers should get off the Internet and become authors or news anchors if we have something we want to say. First of all have you tried to get a job in either of those fields; good fucking luck, even if you have the qualifications that I have. They said we needed to go to Uni and study, to learn correct punctation and grammar before we start writing our opinions on anything, that we are nothing and we should respect those who have studied journalism. So here's my background; I completed a degree where I majored in journalism at University and in fact just finished my final year in my law degree as well, and now I'm going to study a Masters in Journalism; oh and I run a blog. I've had jobs in the professional journalism world and I've been a freelancer; I've done it all already. I did all of this while continuing to run my blog, so let me assure you there are certainly many bloggers out there who have all these apparent qualifications that you think we need; I personally would love to know the qualifications and degrees this certain person held. So I'm sorry but it is 100% wrong to sit there and paint us all with one simple, broad brushstroke. You say people need to respect those who have studied journalism, well I hate to break it to you, but I'm a blogger who has, so you're saying you and others need to respect me and the many others like me.
I'm sure there are many bloggers out there who don't have the degrees and experience that I have and I don't think that in any way makes them less "qualified" to be a blogger; like that's even a term you can use in this field. To be honest, having certain qualifications and experience is becoming less and less the way of the world in certain fields. There are certain areas in life you need to be and should be qualified to work in, but many degrees and other qualifications are simply optional these days, especially anything to do with writing. Honestly, they teach you things you could sit down and learn yourself, and particularly in journalism, the only reason for having a degree is because so many people want a job in the field that you're better off having that completed degree written down on a piece of paper than not; it's not about the skills you learnt in that degree so much as just having confirmation you received a piece of paper with the words on it like everyone else. So many people are following their own unconventional paths now to grow their careers in various fields. So telling someone they need a degree to do something, particularly in a space like the Internet, is just silly talk.
Not to mention that people can sit here and tell us to go get a job with a real journalism company, go be a news anchor but do you realise how one-sided the news from those outlets really is, how misinformed those outlets are sometimes actually making you - bloggers (for the majority) will give you all the information along with their own opinion - honestly it's probably a more unbiased news source then that 7pm news report you watched last night.
I could continue on more but I don't want this post to get any longer than it already is. Basically I feel people cut down blogging because they think it's easy, doesn't take much skill or brains or anything, is wrong. People blog because they're passionate about writing and about certain topic areas. Blogging is a passion and frankly that's what you need to do it because there's no guarantee doing this is going to ever sustain your life, it may simply be something you do for fun on the side for your entirety. Like I say about many things, if it was that easy to do and to continue doing, everyone would be doing it; but they're not. Clearly these people who are writing these hateful things towards people like myself aren't blogging, and if I was to guess, I'd say more often than not they've never even given it a go - so quite frankly they have no idea what they're talking about.
I'm quite lucky in that everyone who surrounds me in my life is positive about what I do and think it's great that I do it. Those of us who are bloggers or do anything on the Internet are not strangers to hate on the Internet, in fact we become immune to it, and that's why posts like the ones I talked about today don't hurt me but instead make me laugh. Even though they don't hurt me and 9 times out of 10 we should ignore them, I think every now and then us bloggers need to say a little something back to these people to remind, not just them, but everyone, that they're quite frankly, you're wrong.
