This one’s for the bloggers, and any one else who’s thinking of being one. Also: Yes this IS a fiasco. Also: I’m pretty sure the Dayre servers haven’t encountered such a load before. 

Many of you may have heard about how beauty blogger Juli Bun Bun decided to live-blog a wedding she was attending on Dayre. This didn’t go down well. She said a bunch of things that weren’t very nice because she thought the bride and groom would never see her post, and promptly got slammed online for the words she wrote. Her scathing words got screen-capped and ended going global.

Whether you think she’s right or wrong really doesn’t matter. It’s also not important she was doing it for fame or if this was really just what she thought. I don’t enjoy speculation. However, I do deal with the facts. So…

Here’s a fact:

A blogger from Singapore has ended up on international sites, and the headlines aren’t pretty.

Here’s another fact: Say what you will about the lack of journalistic ability/integrity that plague sites like Elite Daily, Jezebel or the Daily Mail. These sites draw huge traffic, comprised of a global audience. Millions of pageviews on a monthly basis and even more when there’s viral content. Many people have been asking about how she’s benefitted from this attention or whether she’s remorseful about her actions.

Here’s the real question we should be answering:

Is this really how we want the world to see Bloggers?

Set aside the whole “Oh I’d never do that to my friend’s wedding” because this isn’t about just you – This one’s about all of us.

Like it or not, the truth is if we really want to be (God I hate this word) “Influencers”, then we have to recognise that we actually influence people. This is not a title, it isn’t a name you just throw around to make some money with.

This is a responsibility. We’re responsible for the people that read the site because we affect them, in big and small ways. Words can break people or lift them up. With the sheer number of people reading blogs these days, that has to count for something.

In every discussion I’ve had about this issue, there’s been talk about social responsibility, self-censorship and the concept of professionalism. At the end of the day, the arguments actually revolve around one fact:

With great traffic, comes great responsibility.

Doesn’t matter if you’re a lifestyle, beauty, food or rojak blogger (like me). You’re responsible for the words you put out, to the people that read your material. Your words matter, use them wisely, for the good of others and yourself. 

After all, silence can sometimes be pretty golden.

Until next time,
Kenneth

bloggers life responsibility society