Friday, April 20, 2012

Question: Do you think too many people are blogginabout the same stuff?

Blogging is fun for me, I really enjoy showing my photographs, crafty creations, and doing some real writing from time to time...but sometimes I get completely MENTALLY BLOCKED....not for lack of ideas...but lack of motivation.

There are just TOO MANY people, writing the about all the exact same things. Taking the same instagrams of picnics and bike rides and date nights and crafts projects.

Don't get me wrong,  I enjoy the blogs I read...but sometimes I feel like they are all regurgitating the same 'happy life' 'creative girl' 'photographer' 'what I wore'--type stuff over and over. And what one person sees, another one feels compelled to blog about the same topic.

Maybe I just read blogs that inspire me and great minds think alike...perhaps I need to read blogs with a little more variety in order to find true inspiration from the internet.

Sometimes I get an idea for a new blog post, and before I can take a photo or write about it, someone else posts something so similar (and sometimes slightly better) that it seems like a waste to even finish the post.

Case-In-Point. In January/February, we were engaged in a lengthy Japanese art unit. One of the fun things about this culture is gyotaku fish printing.  Using a rubber fish set, I demonstrated how to print onto Japanese rice paper and onto vintage fabric.

The student prints turned out so cool! I was excited to share this idea on my blog, until I saw a beautiful DIY on fabric printing appear on a really famous blog just a few days later. I know printing on fabric isn't a new idea...but I felt like I would've been 'copying'  to post such a similar idea at nearly the same time.

Do you ever feel this way?
Do you think too many people are blogging and sharing the same ideas over and over?
Does it ever stifle your creativity?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

But I bet that blogger didn't teach that process to 100 school children! You are talented Nellie and I think there is room for all of us in this world, blogging and real! Post away, girlfriend. You make us proud!

Anonymous said...

This is Abby, btw! :)

Kate Geisen said...

I read a TON of running blogs, and if you want to talk about being the same...except, of course, they aren't...because they're about peoples' individual experiences, what was hard, what went well, what was funny...even when two people run the same race it's never the SAME race.

Along those lines with your fish printing example, even if two people use the same basic idea they're usually going about it in different ways, and I see a lot of value in seeing similar things from different directions.

I don't know if any of that made any sense, so take it with a grain of salt.

Nellie Mae said...

Kate, thanks for chiming in!! I totally agree that it is all based on personal experience. I appreciate your comment!

Maria Ontiveros said...

Yes - in some ways - I tend to follow blogs with similar voices and interests to my own. That's what attracts me to them. But then I add blogs with different points of view and ideas (like yours), and I like the variety.
Right now I'm feeling very scattered creatively and unable to focus and complete something. So my blogging has been thin. I hope to come out of it soon.
Rinda