Blog to gain more power, freedom, and control:

Blogging is more relevant today than ever

I’ve been blogging since I was 15 years old—I am 30 years old now. I’ve been blogging for 15 years straight.

Why do I blog, and what have I learned along the way? And is there a purpose of blogging in today’s social media world?

I believe so.

1. Blog to reflect and think

RICOH GR II, shot with Flash in macro mode

One of the biggest benefits of blogging is that it allows you to think, reflect and meditate on your life.

Honestly most of the time I blog, it is a way of me thinking through an idea or a problem for myself.

Through blogging, I’ve been able to discover deeper truths about myself. And not only that, but blogging has been able to give me a platform for sharing these ideas and truths with others.

2. You’re already blogging (but building the capital of social media)

This is the problem:

We are working for free (social media slavery) for these mega social media companies.

For example, ask yourself — how does Facebook-Instagram make money? Easy — they get you addicted to their platform (like a crack dealer), then they mine your preferences (social diamonds), then they end up serving you advertisements (interruptions and distractions).

The concept of “blogging” is simple:

Keep a web log of your life.

A web (internet web) log (log of your activities).

We are already doing this with Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. We upload our personal photos of our daily activities, our political opinions, etc.

But you don’t control or “own” any of your digital creations if you use a ‘free’ online social media service.

Build your own capital— build your own platform.

3. Access to your digital life

Selfie

I love WordPress.org so much. I have so many photos, files, and media uploaded to it — and regardless of whatever device or computer I use, I can still access all of my digital files and life from anywhere. It is almost like having your own personal Dropbox — except you own it.

Nowadays cloud services are very good — but I’m always a bit suspicious.

For example Google gives us free unlimited uploads for our photos (as well as Facebook-Instagram, Snapchat, etc)— but what is the hidden catch? The catch: we stay addicted to their platform, we keep feeding them more of our own personal information, in order for them to sell us more advertising.

4. Control, customization, access to followers

As a photographer, if you share your photos on Facebook or Instagram— it is horrible. Why? Your photos are being shared or served to your friends alongside advertisements.

It is almost like if you sat down with your friends, opened up a family photo album, and suddenly in random in-between pages you see spammy advertising (that actually learns from your family photos — which is actually creepy as fuck).

Anyways, with your own blog, you can control how you display your photos. You can customize your own blog, and choose your own theme, add your own plugins, and so much more.

You can create your own email newsletter, which will give you direct access to your followers — instead of having social media followers, which get filtered by algorithms.

5. Open

Ultimately to me — open is better than closed.

With Facebook or Instagram, for the most part — it is a walled (advertising ridden) garden. To truly interact on their platform, you need to use their platform.

But I’m the idealist. I remember the early days of the internet and web — it was like the wild Wild West! Everyone made and designed their own websites. There was so much more creativity and individual expression.

Now we are trapped within these cookie cutter social media templates. Considering that more of our lives are becoming more and more digital — the solution is to take back the power, by creating your own website and blog.

You can blog about anything and everything. Just upload and share photos. Write personal thoughts on things which matter to you. And the great thing — you won’t get censored (social media censors you).

Own and create your own media empire for yourself.

ERIC