Blogs as A Beautiful Neighborhood

Assalamu'alaikum.

Welcome back to my-almost-forgotten-english-post. LOL. I know, I have promised you that I will post in English at least once a week, and I didn't keep my promise last year. Sorry .... :( But, starting this year, I will try to make it happen every week. Bismillaah!

I'm just gonna keep this post light, chit-chatting about something fun for me: blogging. Wait, on a second thought, blogging doesn't seem so fun anymore lately. :( The atmosphere of blogging, especially in Indonesia has turned to another direction. I usually embrace every dynamic change in every aspects of life. I'm really grateful that today bloggers are so appreciated by most of important parties, especially in Indonesia. You name it, big companies, government, social movements. They are all embracing bloggers in every events and campaigns.

This has lead the aura of blogging to some directions. As a blogger, I'm really happy that my voice matters for any interests that other people want to speak up. I help some social campaigns as well as commercial ones. It gives benefits too to me. But the competitiveness among bloggers is also heating up. Some of them are taking it too seriously. It makes them do stuff that does not look pretty online.

Instead of stick to the roots of blogging: sharing and connecting, they use their power to talk down to other bloggers that they think might be the competitors to them. Insinuations on social media have been a regular show on my timeline. It makes me sick. I miss the old blogging days, where bloggers are just as fun as a carefree young girl running around on the prairie. (I know, my parable is so old, LOL).

I love to compete, but please, don't make it ugly. Competing with your friends is actually fun. It drives you to give out the best of you. What makes it look not so appealing anymore to me, some of them are trying to make others look lower than themselves. Laughing behind their own friends' backs. And ... here's the sickest part, when they meet each other, they take selfies together! Talking bad about your friends behind their back is one thing, but being a hypocrite is another thing. That's all I can say.

I'm not talking about all bloggers. This type of blogger is just a tiny numbers on my friends list. I hope the rest of you can stay as beautiful as you are already. Let's make our blogs a beautiful neighborhood. Stick to the roots of blogging; sharing and connecting. Other than that, it's a bonus.

I look awesome, right? :p