Are you still reading blogs?
I’m thinking about the small blogs that share personal favourite books and playlists, everyday moments in photos, the blogs that make you feel you got invited to somebody’s home and have a cup of tea while talking about the café around the corner, your latest trip to the Baltic Sea or whatever is on your mind, the weather, an exhibition, a recipe for cinnamon buns or the longing for a place. The blogs that are small, personal and feel kind of intimate. They take and give time.
Blog posts used to be my after-lunch-breaks. Nowadays I scroll through Instagram before, during and after lunch and don’t remember much afterwards. Except for what Schorlemädchen just wrote on Instagram which has been on my mind for a while as well: “…the good old blog seems very analog to me and the consumption of news, photos etc. is like an always hungry very fast beast.”
Blogs need more time to read and create, you think about the composition of the images and the story you write around it. I enjoy the slowness of it, the ongoing creation of an archive. Nine years ago, I started my blog cake+camera, a collection of travels, moments, thoughts and books. I just gave it a new look, still working on finalising it. It’s my space to create, collect and remember, and I want to keep it.
I also notice, however, that things might turn more private again. Think of personal photo books in your book shelf you take out in the late afternoon and browse with the people in the photos. We might grow tired of over-sharing everything with everyone. We might want to have secrets again, and only show glimpses of our lives. Blogs seem more private to me, somehow, although they have this archive – there is no Instagram live story, there is always time between experience and creation.
And still: I miss my everyday breaks with rose & crown, Schorlemädchen, Olive and Oak, Stepanini, Amanda Jane Shank, Milas Deli, Anna Gawlak, the blue hour, Maria Cear, fixmycamera, Monica Bedmar, Working Title 6 and many more, but luckily, some of them are still occasionally blogging and will hopefully keep doing it, too.
Thank you so much for listing me here. I remember that feeling of happiness when one of my favourite blogs would have an update. It filled me with joy. The fast scrolling does not. I will try and make more blogging possible for me :)
Yes please! :)
I am definitely still reading blogs (including yours) and occasionally writing. I quit instagram because the interactions felt very superficial. Blogs, for me, are exactly as you described… making you feel like you got invited to somebody’s home. I have made a lot of friends through blogging, friends I have met in person and had adventures with. I can’t see myself developing those same connections via IG or FB.
Thanks for sharing the list of blogs you enjoy. I have some new (to me) places to visit now.
So nice to read your comment Leonie, thank you! You’re right – blogs feel like they allow a deeper connection. Which blogs are you reading? Would love to visit some new ones too.
these times already feel so long ago and i´m so happy about those who still keep going. it feels good to “age” alongside those internet friends…