Blog Turns One! - Year In Review

Woohoo, today marks the first birthday of A Splash Of Tan!!! *virtual hi-five* Yup, I made a party hat just to take this picture. I never thought I would make it to this day because I didn't think I would keep posting. I can tell you very truthfully that getting to this point has been difficult. Blogging took a toll on me for at least the last 6 months. Sounds a little dramatic, right?

When I made my first post on this blog on July 12, 2013, I was really excited to have my own public outlet to share things with everyone, my way. Blogging gives you a lot of freedom- you choose what to write and what to take pictures of. When I hit that "publish" button, I felt so happy knowing that someone would be reading my content.

Many of you don't know I had a blog before "A Splash Of Tan." I will not share that one with you because it has more personal posts that I do not wish for everyone to read. I do however want to share with you one excerpt that I had on a post I wrote about social media:

"I feel like the number of "likes" a photo gets [in Facebook] is like a popularity contest sometimes or an easy way for compliments and it doesn't sit well in my stomach. If you post a picture that you think is brilliant or it's of yourself and no one likes it, you know very well it will kick you in the stomach a little; I can't be the only one who thinks this way. That's just how the social scene works now- number of subscribers on youtube, twitter and tumblr followers, reposts on tumblr, etc. Yea it feels good but not in the healthiest way.

Maybe that's why I find blogging fun. It's a fun way just to show my everyday life and be able to talk about anything. Having followers is nice too and seeing people worldwide view your posts, but the absence of waiting for people to reblog or "like" things feels so much easier and less pressuring."

I wish I still felt that way. Over the course of the year, I found that blogging fits right into what I call the "social media approval." You see, blogging doesn't have likes or reposting but there are followers, comments, and view counts. Seeing everyone else get them while I would sometimes get no comments was hard on me. No feedback/responses made me feel as though my content was not good. It hurt when I saw someone un-follow.

Looking back at my previous blog and early blog posts, my writing style has changed. I used to write about things I really wanted to document and I wasn't afraid to talk about my faith. Eventually, I gave into wanting views/comments and followers so I wrote differently to cater to my audience. I no longer wrote about my faith, thinking of outfits became stressful, and my content had little meaning.

In the recent months, I tried to get back on track. I posted less because the pressure of keeping my followers by posting often got to me. Blogging is supposed to be a hobby for me and when I had to meet a deadline, it became work I dreaded doing. There were many moments when I wanted to quit blogging. I'm starting to find my own way to blog again, not giving into what I must do to get x amount of followers or traffic. Whenever I feel like posting something, I'll do it. I'm just trying to be me again on this blog!


I hope you understand my point of view. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for visiting my blog! Have a great week :)