My generation sees the blogging-culture in two ways: we are provoked by the amount of money bloggers make by writing a few blog posts about materialistic topics, but at the same time we read blogs regularly. Reading lifestyle blogs is seen as a “guilty pleasure”, a way to comment on or make fun of the way society has become -- at what people can call paid jobs. Bloggers have the same influence on readers as fashion magazines have, if not more. One can give the argument that they play an important role in the Norwegian fashion-world, as they have a much bigger amount of readers than any magazine or platform has. My counter argument would be that people working in magazines or other fashion related platforms most often have an education, while bloggers start early, preferably in the age between 17-20, and, well, they don’t see the urge to get an education as they earn as much money by blogging as they would if they got a job.
As mentioned before, lifestyle blogs often consist of fashion, beauty, health, travel and fitness. When something tragic happens, preferably in Norway, they will write about it (many bloggers shared their support and love to the families and friends of the teenagers killed in the 2011 Norway attacks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks)), and from time to time they will advertise about supporting organizations like the Red Cross, most likely because these organizations sponsor them. Other than that, lifestyle bloggers seldom write about politics or problems facing society. Norwegians are, as mentioned before, a beauty-focused society. I found an interesting article (http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/Kroppen-er-den-nye-sjelen-7418582.html#.UsBKymTuIq4) stating, “The body is our new soul”. It talks about how religion, spirit, history and politics always have been in people’s interest. Now, we are more interested in our bodies. It goes on saying that “Fotballfrue” is the biggest role model, as thousands of followers consume photos of her food, exercise, smiles, happiness, clothes etc. Everything looks perfect – but how perfect is it? The entire platform is confusion between a body image and commercialism.
The article goes on saying that this type of media creates a feeling of failure for many of the young readers. The problem is, another paradox in society is the importance of being unique, but we try to create a unique self by copying others. Why?