I still remember the free WordPress account I made the summer before my freshman year of high school, on which I ecstatically posted movie reviews and vacation photos of Greece and Italy – I abandoned it after a week.
A year later I did it again, spending more time creating a classy and streamlined look than I did actually writing the content intended for the site. Now, a few years later, here I am sharing my opinions on Odyssey (hopefully with a little more success this time).
My interest in creating a blog didn’t just appear out of nowhere. In fact, I can name about 10 friends and acquaintances who had the same urge, albeit with more success. We grew up in a time where bloggers, YouTubers, and Instagram models get paid to review products that are given to them for free. They get to travel to Coachella and Fashion Week without spending a dime, and we look on in awe at their perfect, Snapchat-worthy lives. It seems like a natural progression from being a reader of one of these blogs to wanting to write one of your own; after all, who doesn’t love free stuff?
But endorsement deals obviously aren’t the only reason, or even the main one. Every single person that makes a blog or a Twitter or an Instagram has one driving force – the need to be heard. Many people would cite this as evidence as the narcissism of our generation, the “selfie generation.” But I see it as a natural progression. Whereas before an opinionated citizen would have to call into a radio show or write a letter to a magazine in order to share their opinions, now one only needs to log on and trim it down to 140 characters.
If selfies are a celebration of our bodies and our beauty, aren’t blogs a celebration of our minds? People my age are more aware and educated than ever, simply due to the access the Internet has given them. It gives us the power to see all sides of an argument, therefore helping us to form our own opinions. And what’s wrong with sharing those opinions? I don’t believe the people that say Millennials with Twitter accounts are simply addicted to the sound of their own voices. I believe that those Twitter accounts have a purpose, whether it be to spread awareness, encourage discourse, incite laughter, or even just to keep the writer sane. Sometimes all we want is for someone to hear us; social media gives us the illusion that the entire world has heard us, that for once our opinion was valid.
So why was I so obsessed with sharing my opinions on movies when I was in high school? Not because I expected to be paid for a stellar review, not because I wanted a blog to be “cool” (OK, maybe a little bit). No, it was because I wanted to share something that I was proud of. I’ve seen a ton of movies, and I have a ton of opinions about those movies. I was proud of my ability to articulate my thoughts, and I wanted to share – even if nobody read them. I think that this thought process is similar to what many people went through when they made their first embarrassing blog back in middle school, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s OK to want to be heard; social media has told us that.
So go out and share that funny anecdote about your dog or your carefully worded political argument. Type it into the void and see who responds. And if no one does? Well, that’s OK, you still have that cute selfie to post tomorrow.
