As some of you might know, I spend the waking hours of 7-3 crammed in a classroom with forty pubescent hormonal seventeen year olds.
High school.
Strangely enough, I quite like it. It is fun to be in high school, but not be in high school at the same time. To be closely involved with all the excitement of youth, but to still be an outsider, not involved in the drama, the tears, the endless switching up of boyfriends.
The other day I received an email about something that had happened in the blogging world and as I read it I thought, "Oh my goodness, this sounds just like the crap I have to deal with all day at high school."
Bing. The light bulb went off. A post was born.
And so, I present to you:
HOW BLOGGING IS LIKE HIGH SCHOOL
by The Life of Bon
October 2, 2012
4th period
1. Everybody rambles on and on about how great their boyfriends are. Only now those boyfriends have converted themselves into husbands. I get real sick of hearing my 16 year old students go on and on about how fabulous their boyfriends are. I also get sick of bloggers talking about how great their husbands are. Before you all jump all over me I will say that I have also been guilty of doing this. Heck, I love Hubs as much as the next woman loves her husband. I guess what starts to bother me is when I feel like bloggers are being competitive in their love for their husbands, almost as if they are saying, "I love my husband more than you love your husband." Can we all just admit that yes, our husbands are great, but they can also be real stinkers sometimes!
2. You better look cute, darn it! The clothes conscious/ fashion conscious/ everybody is lookin at me mentality of high school also exists in the blogging world. Never since high school have I cared so much about what I wore as when I started blogging prolificly. All of a sudden I felt like I had to have more clothes, cuter jewelry, and the most expensive of everything. Since when did I even care about this stuff as long as my hair was combed and I didn't smell. Sheesh! I was joking with my friend Jennie about a blogger meet up that we are going to this week and we joked about how we must be wearing skinny jeans or colored tights or thrifted shirts or surely we'd get thrown out on our butts. Image is everything in high school. Image is everything in blogging. Oh, how the worlds collide!
3. It is a popularity contest.
4. People think they can super rude things they would never get away with anywhere else in the world. I always like to tease about the reader who called me "bean paste" when I admitted I had parked in a handicapped stall. But all kidding aside, seriously? SERIOUSLY? Where do you get the nerve thinking you can say that to another human being? I had one person comment a couple of months ago that she loved reading my blog every day so she could sit behind her computer screen and laugh at my ignorance. Um.. okay? What is the point of telling me that? When I wrote my post on risky writing I received this comment from Lauren:
I grew up in a family where you didn't talk religion, politics, money, etc...so it has always been very hard for me to address those controversial subjects. Heck we even kept our private lives private when anything wasn't going our way. Blogging has opened a whole new world to me of being able to be open about my life. I still haven't written about my wedding (because as great as it was there are some secrets there) but I have written about my sister's cancer.
But the worst thing so far for me was that I was begged by a blogger to do a guest post about how God has shown me something. It was a hard post for me to write (because I am just learning to talk about those hard things) and I wrote it and gave it to her. She said it was great...but forgot to post it for 2 weeks in favor of link ups to gain more followers.
When she finally posted it, people commented saying that I was the scum of the earth and ungodly. So she said she had to take it down. It hurt so much because I was proud of the post. I am hoping one day I have the bravery to post that post on my own blog, but I love how you are free from risks here on your blog and will continue to be an avid reader of your blog everyday
These kinds of comments break my heart. What is with people saying mean things? Sometimes blogging reminds me of the movie Mean Girls all grown up. We are all adults here and the online blogging bullying has honestly has got to stop and now I feel like I am giving a lecture to my 16 years old, but seriously, stop! No more hate comments!
Wow, I got a little carried away with that one. My bad!
5. There are cliques. Lots of cliques. In my high school there are the jocks, the cheerleaders, the studious Mormons, the band geeks, the drama club, the gothics. Everyone has got their little clique and they don't like to venture out much. Thus it is with bloggging. Have you noticed that there are certain bloggers who are always giving shout outs to each other, linking up with each other, and constantly tweeting each other. I think that's great. Interestingly enough I've met some really cool friends from blogging. But I also think you gotta reach outside your comfort zone. Don't exclude others in your love for some. Like my mama always told me in high school, "Bonnie! Don't be cliquey!"
6. Some awkward standing around at parties is involved. Remember high school when you would go to parties and try to look really cool and hip and do your darndest to fit in and make everyone believe you are having a rip roaring good time? Totally reminds me awkward blogger meetups I have attended. Not because the meetups were crummy, but because I am an awkward person. In the picture below I do, in fact, look like I am having a blast. I am, in fact, feeling quite awkward.
Well chicas, that wraps up my ever so informative comparison essay of blogging and high school. I realize that, like high school, it is probably nothing more than a bunch of fluff mingled with very little education.
