Sunday 24 March 2019

Hello again.


I have spent a lot of time trying to decide if I've given up blogging or not. A seemingly simple question which was emphatically... not simple. I haven't blogged for nearly seven months, and I couldn't work out if I missed it.

There are some things I don't like about blogging. The politics. The hierarchy. The FOMO. The encouragement to place so much focus on numbers and views. I recently stopped using hashtags on Instagram because it suddenly stopped mattering to me if strangers or bots (mostly bots) liked my photos. I stopped trying to post every day, and just post when I want to. Sporadically. I unfollowed some of the most influencey influencers on my friends list, and focused on people who I found interesting, whose content I enjoyed. It's a nicer place to be.

But there's a lot I like about blogging. I love having an outlet for my thoughts. I love sharing my experience and knowledge, feeling like I've helped someone. I love finding new local places to eat, I love that those new places can find ME, and I love that I can then tell you guys all about them. And I bloody adore the community, that little gang of you who send me messages on Instagram and laugh at my stupid jokes. Because I haven't left social media, I never felt like I left you, which also made me kind of wonder how much I needed this space.

But I like knowing it's there. I like the fact that for the last ten years - TEN YEARS - I've been able to write about whatever I'm most into, without feeling pigeonholed or pressured into being something I'm not. I like knowing that I can always come back to it if I want to, and no one will judge me for taking a break, in the same way no one has hassled me for not posting. There's some joy to be found in not being the person with thousands of followers.

So... no. I haven't given it up. I think I'm back. And I don't know yet what 'back' will look like. I want to talk more about the things that are happening in my life. Some of them are scary, personal things. Some of them are slightly pathetic, I-guess-I'm-an-adult-now things (have I told you about my new washing machine yet? I'm very excited about it). And some of them will be the things you're used to, like restaurant reviews and travel tips and things I want to buy.

I'm just going to see how I go. And that might not mean posting every week. It certainly won't mean posting every other day like I somehow used to do on the regular. But anyway. I just wanted to say hi. And I've missed you guys.

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3 comments

  1. I love you, Sarah! You’ve captured everything I feel about blogging. I don’t wish to quit because I do love to write but I don’t feel obliged to write as often. This is partly because I’ve been dropped by every PR since I don’t have 10k followers but then I’ve never bought mine ;-) I do have some posts written and plan to publish them by I’m not chasing hits and followers and I don’t need PR samples to make m feel complete. I also prefer to follow more authentic blogs and have turned my back on the influencers. Keep going! I need decent blogs to read. Xxx

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  2. What a nice surprise to see your post pop up this morning on my blog subscription app. I'm looking forward to reading what you choose to write.

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  3. Great to have you back in whatever capacity you fancy, Sarah x

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