Blogging + Blogging Nastyness is not a sum I like!

If you're a blogger, ask yourself, why do you blog? If you're a blog reader, ask yourself, why do you read blogs? Hopefully your answer is centred somewhere around sharing what you do or make, it's a hobby, you like to connect with others and read and learn interesting content or maybe you're a tad nosey like me and you love, just love a sneek peek into other peoples lives.

I started blogging in 2009. I was making pretty handmade cards and invitations and saw blogging as the perfect platform to share what I was making and a way to connect with others who made the same. It was also a way to create and promote my oh so little cute brand Lucky Rainbow Designs. I wasn't perfect at it, my early posts are embarrassingly dreadful but I persisted none the less and threw myself a mini party whenever I received a new follower or a lovely comment. The blogging community as it appeared to me was welcoming, it was a section of the internet where like minded people came together and share personal stories, advice and all sorts of pretty things. I was hooked.

Like other bloggers, I drifted in and out of the blogging world. I showed various levels of commitment but soon I realised that I didn't want to limit myself to just writing about crafts. I had an opinion on all manner of things and wanted to share those opinions, maybe even, find someone who shared that opinion too. With the move to Manchester, I used blogging as a way to meet people, as a way to find people who had something in common with me. As mentioned numerous times it proved to be a winning formula. Lovely bloggers + lovely new blogs + discovering lovely new spaces and places because of them. The maths was adding up. No long division involved.

So you can imagine my disappointment when in the last few days I discovered via the all knowing Twitter that there was a forum called Guru Gossip where bloggers and non-bloggers could write comments anonymously about their adored bloggers and also their abhorred bloggers. I'm not trying to use fancy terms here, these forums 'Adorred Bloggers' and 'Abhorred Bloggers' actually exist. It all blew up on Twitter when it was revealed that two of those making nasty comments have recently been listed for a Cosmo blogger award and so all sorts of comments and opinions started to appear with one of the named bloggers openly apologising for any hurt caused and the other choosing to believe they hadn't done anything wrong.

Scrolling through the 'Abhorred Bloggers' list, I saw blog after blog (and some of my fav's too!) torn apart with some commenter's going so far as to comment on the looks and weight of the blogger. I kid you not. You probably wouldn't find this level of dog sh*t in the playground. Over and over again I asked myself "If you don't like the blog or the content, then why continue to read it?" - and yet, they do, they continue to slate posts, photographs, reviews and even vlogs that are created too. They describe the authors as 'fake', 'wooden', 'trying too hard' and 'loving themselves', criticising their writing skills and ability and even taking to describing one vlogger has having 'strange facial tension'. WTF is strange facial tension when it's at home??

There are posts and forums where members are obsessed with the lives of the big players like Essie Button and Zoella. Jesus f**king Christ, reading it was like watching an episode of Coronation Street on speed while been spun around one of those NASA G-force simulators. It was all consuming. It is their life, to dissect every single reference made on their blog / vlogs - to try and find hidden meanings and whether vloggers who appear to be great friends have actually, in real life, fallen out. See, Coronation Street + speed + NASA.

The site itself encourages you to 'get your gossip on' and informs you 'If you don't like what's here, DON'T COME HERE!". I won't say it promotes gossip, it doesn't. It promotes bitchy-ness, it gives a platform for jealousy, to nit pick and tear people down. In short, it promotes internet bullying and doesn't for one second take into consideration that a real person is behind the screen, behind the blog, behind the words they're sharing. Granted not every blog / vlog will be up you're street, but don't be a complete knob head and resort to hiding behind a screen to vehemently share your opinions with other knob heads. Move on folks, the green eyed monster (cas that's what really is happening here) isn't pretty and lets remind ourselves of some wise words, "Down with that sorta thing!". (Good man Fr.Ted, tell it like it is!)

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