Q

I’ve kept this blog since 2006, and it’s always been a jiapalang pastiche of everything. Rants, updates, conversations, reviews, lists, commentaries. Some are lengthy and have quite a bit of thought put into them, others are just silly paragraphs without an actual purpose, the rest can be pretty personal. Its only constancy is its inconsistency.

It has served me well too. Call me a narcissist but i quite enjoy reading my archives and read about my past, whether in reminiscence or appreciation of my own writing (LOL). There has been a sudden resurgence of lifestyle blogging popularity, though, and with it came along a strict demarcation of blog categories. Lifestyle bloggers carve out a niche where pretty photos of food and fashion dominate their pages. Commentaries are left to “political” or at least “serious” bloggers.

I don’t understand this distinction.

What happened to the days where Xiaxue, pre-advertorials galore, posted extensively about anything – from social issues to cleaning out her closet? I want to hear personal thoughts from everyone, things that happen in their lives beyond that of visiting a cafe or purchasing two blouses at a discounted price. 

I recently came across a Facebook status scoffing a lifestyle blogger for commenting on the Little India riot. It made me a little sad inside that we are practicing exclusivity. Why are we discouraging the layman from having an opinion about socio-political issues? It doesn’t matter how valid or informed our opinions are, as long as they aren’t offensive. Ignorance is always more pardonable than apathy, imo.

You can scoff, if you are one to, at the opinion offered, but why scoff at another having an opinion and sharing it?

Okay I’m slightly off point here. What I wanted to say is how increasingly displaced I feel in the increasingly segmented internet sphere. I haven’t been posting for awhile because every time I felt like posting something it seemed off. I wanted to photo-blog about Christmas and how I spent it with the best of company, but I didn’t have the fancy photos or the brevity expected of a lifestyle update. I wanted to do some reviews on the books i’ve read so far but where and what does that make me as a blogger. Am i EVEN A BLOGGER? If so, am i allowed to comment on the Little India riot – the way i have commented in my own little inadequate and ignorant way on many political issues since the beginning?

I’ll eventually resolve this crisis and resume blogging at a less constipated frequency i guess, but i still can’t help but feel like the current norms of blogging has crowded out a more haphazard, personal blogging style i love (and love reading from everyone else).