mean girls - Guru Gossip

Before I start this post 'proper', I just want to make something clear - I'm not posting this to get sympathy, or fish for compliments. I'm posting this because I think it needs to be said.

The other day, whilst looking at my blogger stats I noticed I'd had quite a lot of traffic from the now infamous site Guru Gossip. Immediately, my heart sank. For those that may not know GG is a site where, essentially, people to go to have a bitch about bloggers, in the main part. Just by looking at the home page and seeing threads such as 'abhorred bloggers' and 'trash a guru' I feel disheartened. Surely people are over this sort of shit by now? Seems not.

Following the link on my blogger page, I came to a thread titled 'smaller, less talked about bloggers'. From what I can tell, this is yet another forum for people to discuss bloggers, such as myself apparently, who are 'small' and therefore don't attract as much hate as the 'big bloggers' - who deserve it, obvs (irony) - but people still want a moan. Getting to the point, someone started a thread 'there are so many bloggers out there and the market is over-saturated that these people are desperate for any sort of attention, even though most of them are carbon copies of one another'... which is where I come in. I was then given as an example of such a blogger, with someone taking offence to the use of the lettering on some of my images.

Now, I'm not here to defend myself, or justify what I do. I simply think this sort of thing should not be happening. Luckily for me I'm pretty secure in myself (that comes with coming to the wrong side of 25, I fear) and am able to take what these folk have been saying with a pinch of salt. For me my blog is a procrastination tool - as a teacher I work my arse off most of the working (and non-working) week, and this here blog is an escapism. When people slate it, I have to admit I don't really care - it's a hobby, and I will go on as normal. It would be nice if people didn't criticise, but hey, whatever. But for some, it means a lot more to them than that, and to have people pick faults and mercilessly bitch about what they do, its not cool. Working with teenagers I see too often the consequences and aftermath of petty bullying and 'flyaway' comments made online, which really can make some people's lives painful. You only have to watch the news to see cases of young people no longer being able to take the abuse they receive online; often from so-called friends, people posting anonymously, and for no just cause. When did this become normal?!

Maybe I'm just out of touch with the social media generation; I mean I'm pretty media-savvy, but fuck having to grow up with twitter, ask.fm et al as well as dealing with what is already a stressful time in most peoples' lives. What happened to the sistahood?! Yes, I did just say that. And yes, I have a blog. No, that does not entitle people to slag me off merely because 'I've put myself out there'. I'm entirely aware that what I saw about my blog on GG is nothing compared to some of the horrendous things people get written about them, but this is exactly my point. Live and let live - life is too short to cause trouble and make people feel shit about something that, in the grand scheme of things, is fairly harmless. They talk about a blogging 'market' which has become 'over-saturated'... I can't be the only one who thinks this talk is a load of BS? Blog what you like, when you like, how you like. There are no rules. And if you don't want to read, then don't. Simple.

I guess this guy knows the score...