Shit Fashion Bloggers Do: My Week on Instagram
There are few phrases in the English language that turn me off more than ‘My Week on Instagram’. It truly is the blogging equivalent of ‘honey, I have some bad news about my herpes test’. I’m not saying that every blogger crafts My Week on Instagram posts to make you compare your life to how amazing theirs is, I’m just saying that pretty much every blogger crafts ‘My Week on Instagram posts to make you compare your life to how amazing theirs is.
The most ridiculous thing is that if you regularly read someone’s blog, you probably already follow them on Twitter and Instagram. Yum, thrice digested content that wasn’t even that interesting to start with. The only thing that feels worse is watching Hollyoaks every night of the week then watching the omnibus at the weekend because you’re too hungover to go find the remote.
Unfortunately, I can’t even really be angry about people using Instagram as a showcase for how cool their life is, because I often find myself doing it too. I feel far more of a compulsion to check in on Foursquare every time I go somewhere remotely cool (Gaucho, Shoreditch House, whatever) than if I’m popping to the shops.
So why do we feel the need to present this enhanced image of ourselves? Easy – because I’d like people to think that I’m an interesting, ‘finger on the pulse’ kinda guy, rather than a lanky wallflower wearing a Joy Division t-shirt with a baked beans stain on it. Even though I fall into the latter category about 90% of the time…The same is true of Instagram – aside from there often being a sense of obligation to do so out of gratitude to brands etc there’s a latent desire to take pictures of launch parties you’ve been invited to and freebies you’ve been sent because, if you make it look like this is just par for the course for you, the invites and gifts will keep on coming.
But the fact your life is like Carrie Bradshaw Jr’s isn’t why people read your blog – sure, living vicariously has its moments, but people generally tire of it very quickly. If people didn’t get invited to a launch party, they don’t want to see pictures of the canapes and cocktails that they didn’t get to drink. They’d probably rather actually see some close-up photos of the product or read about a conversation you had with the creator.
It takes more than nine sepia photos to tell people about your week.
This was SO hilarious! But it does have a serious message behind it, bloggers whether or not it’s deliberate will show off their lifestyle to you and it dies alienate the reader. I don’t care about your pictures, I want to know HOW that event will benefit me for e.g if this is an event showcasing a new collection then tell me which pieces I should go for or something. I think there are bloggers very guilty of this like XXXXXXX.
Totally agree – it’s very difficult for new bloggers not to see established ones living ‘the high life’ and start to feel jealous and bitter. FYI, I removed your reference to a particular blogger here because (whether you’re right or not) I don’t like to put the spotlight on particular individuals when I’m being critical – however I feel about certain practices, a blog is a personal thing and it’s up to them what they want to do!
Why do people take Instagram photos of their Starbucks coffee? Seriously, it’s just coffee.
Loved the bit about watching the Hollyoaks omnibus because you’re too hungover to find the remote – takes me back to student days when Sunday mornings were spent feeling sick while watching Shipwrecked and Popworld.
Pleased to say I have not come across Instagram before – nor will be looking it up now.
Why do we follow blogs? Lots of reasons, all different.
I follow this one for its wit, and angle on fashion/culture, and for its take on the London-centric ‘sociolects of power’ as it were.
And it wins on all three for me.
Keep on doing it, that thing that you do.
I love your posts, you really make me laugh! You’re right, I’d rather see a post on an event that’s a bit more informative than ‘Such a fun night, met other bloggers, they’re so lovely’ etc etc.
Reading your blog is seriously refreshing – I’m a fashion blogger myself and sometimes it is good to read something else than a self-appreciation-society type of comments on blogs I read.
Keep them coming!
Why hi-life on instagram? Because unless low-flying bloggers can distance themselves from ‘The Blonde Salad’ or “The Sartorialist’ they will always feel like their archetypal blogger identity that they so aspire to is out of their reach, no matter how much effort they’ll put into it.
A small post request: collaborations and sponsorships! As much as it is great to collaborate with other brands and I see no shame in overt monetising of blogging through ads, I do feel like we see more and more of the same as bloggers “work” with the same (low level) brands such as oasap and the like…. so there you go
Interesting…I touched on collaborations and sponsorships in the first post in this series, but I have no doubt there’s more I could say!
When I go thru blogs I follow… I typically skip the instagram posts…the pictures are small, over photo-edited, and really I don’t care so much to see tiny flashes of your week. If you did something cool, write a real post with content, and then I’ll care. otherwise, I’ll skip past.
Brilliant. Tried it for a while, then realised that few bloggers are so important (althought lots like to think they are) that people want to read a mass regurgitated blog post of all their other posts at the end of of every week.
That was a fantastic post. I think often times people are too caught up in trying to make their lives appear awesome, instead of focusing on the awesomeness they already have.
This is so funny and true, I know sometimes on Instagram I’m guilty of showing off things -I think everyone does. I think it’s balanced by my twitter which confirms that by no means is my life glam, instead of being at heaps of events I’m actual in watching hollyoaks! I had an email the other day off a blog reader, who said ‘I don’t mind you putting photos up of your family (1 or 2), but can you please show more photos of when your at an event!’ hahahaha I laughed so hard! I wanted to reply sorry that my actual life is so boring. So sometimes you can’t win, I just have a stream of my photos people can click to, rather than using all the same crap people have already seen. I think some bloggers really lay it on, which is sad they feel they have something to prove to people. I get bored when everyone has the same photos, like at least mix it up a little but yeah keep it over on there I think blog posts should be kept for the really shit ;P Saying that if everyone took photos doing the dishes or having a poo I don’t think it would have caught on as much.
It was great to meet you at the launch the other night and next time we must have a really chat, and of course Instagram a photo of ourselves and than post it in a ‘week of’ x
Love this. It was exactly how I felt this week when the hundreds of #ifbcon, #luckyfabb #fno #nyfw tweets started piling up.