Chapter Only One:
„What the quack is The Ugly Blogling?“
Once upon a time there was….
Wait, no, thats not how I’m supposed to start. Nobody wants to read old stuff in blogs.
You will never guess what happened to me today!..
Oh… that’s kind of a cliché…. Ok, I think I got it: . . .
After a certain amount of time, I finally decided to skip the introduction and get directly to the beginning.
So here I am – The Ugly Blogling. No, not there, over here! Oh, stop scrolling, I’m right in front of you. Don’t look so confused — you already got it!
I am the text.
And now you are a part of me and my story. What now? Well – just start reading and figure it out yourself…
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follow, add, invite, re-tweet, like, trackback — words we’re using every day. Even taken out of the context, they all point towards the same thing - Social Media.
Social Media – it is developing so fast, that by the time one has finished writing a text about it, the informations he used won’t be any more relevant. That of course, has been enormous accelerated by the economy, which again took over a cool thing and turned it into a money machine…but thats not the topic of this article.
The important here — every day new ways to get and share all kinds of information on the web appear and become faster, easier, better. Social media even got out of the digital abstraction, turned into technical tools like twitter-friendly mobiles, You Tube-cameras , etc. These technologies, developed especially for the needs of social media, made it in a way material and real.
An speaking about real, we finally got to the central question of this article
How did the personalities of blogger change, after they got popular in social media?
“Ugly Bloglings” I call the people, who’s life style changed, because of their blogs. Once they were the shy, the quiet, the nerds, the „uncool“, the ugly, the weirdoes… Today we would use a bit different words to describe them: trendsetter, fashion icon, star, artist, most influencer, etc. What happened? Did blogging make us live in an opposite world? Well, in a way it did — but thinking about todays world, can you tell which one is the opposite?…
Anyway, what actually happened, is that blogs gave everyone* an equal chance of individual expression on the web. So the one, who never dared to say something — started telling everything.
Blogs gave the possibility to find close minded people outside of ones social environment. So the nerds found each other and became influential.
Blogs encouraged to show the world who you really are — but also gave the opportunity to start over as a “new you”.
Blogs gave the chance to get famous, to set trends, to influence opinions, to get respect.
Clearly, people, who had never got attention before, who always had been repressed by the society’s conventions – the ugly ones, dived into blogging and became Ugly Bloglings.
One day, unexpectedly, the Ugly Bloglings started to get attention. Then as it turned out – what in the society was weird, in social media was „original“.
So it was on — trough positive responses and increasing awareness, something came to the people we’ve never noticed before — their self-confidence. And it grew, the more attention, comments, trackbacs they’ve got. It felt like being applauded and the Ugly Bloglings wanted more, and more.
While the real life socializers were running from club to club — the bloggers started influencing their apparel→ appearing on the clubs guest list→ writing the clubs guest list.
And suddenly, instead the frog to become a prince, all the princes wanted to be frogs.
In most of the blog categories, the authors went trough a similar transformation — but most obvious it is in the fashion — music — hipster — lifestyle scene. Now you can recognize many blogger by their appearance – weirdoes turned into arrogant party animals, acting like superstars. Blogger parties are hot, the winners of some of the many blog awards too.
Winner of the German Blog Awards 2010 – best blogger.
But it’s not as easy as it might sound. All that happened in the context of the already mentioned fast development of social media — blogging became extremely competitive, so good content became a precondition for success. So the Ugly Blogling has been transformed not just in its appearance and social skills, but also in its intellectual skills. Many, who had started a blog without any expectations or idea, had to keep the level of success somehow. The key word was „learning by doing“. Without aiming to it, blogger ended up wit a wide knowledge and developed skills in their category.
But then again, since the most important requirements for a successful blog are continuity and integrity — and not making sense, some pretty absurd content made people famous.
Erik Kessels made a Book out of this Blog.
However, bloggers today are some of the most informed, up to date, good connected creative people in the world. Looking at their selves in the monitor, they don’t see The Ugly Blogling any more, but a beautiful Social Swan.
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Oh, wow, I’m a pretty cool story, seriously! So – did u got the idea? You have now 2 weeks time, to help me – THE UGLY BLOGLING STORY – turn into a beautiful swan. Same as the blogger did. Each click, comment or trackback on me, will take me further. So with your actions, you will update and change me!
At the end of the two weeks I will share the monitoring results with you! But wait a minute, where is my moral?! Ah, here it comes, always to late…
Moral of the story:
The Ugly Bloglng “syndrome” is to me a positive social phenomenon. It proves, that popularity is not a natural circumstance, but a matter of confidence. Also , that you don’t have to fit in, to be liked — you just have to be confident enough, and the people will try to fit in to you.
Good ideas, individuality and influence make you look good. Well, bloggers aren’t rock stars, but most of the people still view at any kind of media participation in a „OMG, you’re on TV“ way. There is just one problem — now, that all the nerds got cool, who are we gonna tease? ;)
48 Kommentare
nice stuff :) i like!!
nice ideas, expressing our reality in a very good way. Although pretty absurd, online social networks are the path to get the best and fastest to people and establish real connections to them. Or in other words: You need to be virtual to get real! Funny, isn´t it?!
Go ahead, I keep my fingers crossed!!!
I like the point of view!
Very interesting perspective. I wish I could stop being an “Ugly Blogling” too. I’m still missing “the keys to blogging success” so I can stop being a frog, duckling, neanderthal or whatever and start being a douchebag wild rapacious party animal.
Why didn’t I think of photoshopping my hamster with a can of Campbell’s soup????
Hey, thanks 4 all your comments, and keep sharing – I’m stil in the animal farm and I want to go out and see the world :) !
@Nicolas – well, there is no formula for anithyng in the world. Either you risk to be different – with or wihout sccess, or you observe the trends use them. I think my chice is pretty obvious ;)
If I became a philosopher, if I have so keenly sought this fame for which I’m still waiting, it’s all been to seduce women basically.
Jean-Paul Sartre
So do bloggers.
Funny text, good style of writing…..
i like it!
wahaa..super exciting this age of informational spirituality.. we are de-materialized and are now ghosts living beyond space and time…re-materializing in the chosen creative image of ‘some’ self.
good stuff ! Keep it up!
Let the ugly blogling become a beautiful (not black) swan ;)
love the idea! A mixture of social sience and new media, which makes the whole thing very interesting from several point of views!
Rock on, Lily!
Cheers,
M
nice … i like it !!! Kepp it up !!
i like the classical frog to prince
but i dont know how to do it.
..or is prince to frog better? …hmm…
eehm…is frog to bigger frog possible?
ich hab dich immer schon cool gefunden
WOW!!! GREAT STORY!
Hey, thanks for the positive comments ! I did a lot of thinking these days bout SoMe and the real social life, do you think that it’s possible to keep ypur social life without participating in Social Media? All the best!
@Jean-Paul Sartre – you are my idol :)
interesting!
am i the prince that suddenly wants to be a frog?
(good stuff though)
Ugly Blogging was sooooo 2001
Luckily it’s not all about the look – sometimes it’s also about the brain!
That’s exactly what i thought, when i read this!
This is a new and very creative subject. Thanks for this satirical piece. I know some bloggers I will send it to ;)
Oh, thanks, that would be great!!!!!
nice and ugly Blogs
Interesting story, really good written… :)
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” …
The concept is very interesting and is expressed in a very original way!
Congratulations for your work Lilly !
I like!!!…the story keep the interest till the end…
Very interesting article and funny to read!
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
nice thing!!
Hey guys, thanks a lot for the positive comments, I really appreciate your support!!!
Gefällt mir :O)
Lustig geschrieben und spannender Inhalt.
Genau, witzig und interessant.
Witzige Idee und gut schön geschrieben. Das Schreiben liegt dir ja bekanntlich … solltest vielleicht über eine steile Blogger-Karriere nachdenken ;)
I’m a very unconfident weirdo, so maybe I should start blogging as soon as possible….
Inspiring story which gave me food to juggle my brain cells: what is the true value of the social networks, do i really make true friends and solid network of people, am i the same online as in the real life, isn’t it time for me to create my own blog and so on?
Like most he last sentence “all the nerds got cool, who are gonna tease”? Maybe it is time for revenge and “these nerds” will tease us
Nice story :)
prince or frog – in fact we are simply who we are. The interesting about all that social networks and blog stuff is that some 0s and 1s give us the guts to show us in our prince – glamor whereas the real world invokes most of the time our not that shiny frog profile!!!
Well, if it´s so, so keep blogging guys, lets make the world a bit more beautiful :)
funny text;-)
it’s fun to read! good job…
Das ist die THE UGLY BLOGLING STORY was ich kenne :)))) само напред…
hahahaha koi e bodyboss :)
this story rocks! yeah. :)
cool article, unorthodox point of view…in some way i have to agree…it is stunning how the former nerds turned into “beautiful swans”
I like …
Da kann ich mich nur anschließen. Coole Story & interessante Insights.
finde ich auch!