Blogging started becoming popular at the very beginning of the 2000s. People viewed it as a neat way to share their opinions with a relatively small group of people, all while developing their own style.
Remember MySpace? People used to write long posts about their feelings, thoughts, and wishes. It became a digital diary for all those who wanted to write and read. However, as social media and digitalization started transforming society, things changed.
With easier access to blog creation tools, there were more and more blogs. This increased the overall quality of content, as well as its popularity amongst millennials. According to Statista, the number of bloggers will reach a mind-boggling 31.7 million just in the US.
However enticing blogging may be, young bloggers often find it hard to promote their blog and how to make their content relevant. To better understand the blogging phenomenon, we have to analyze the goals and wishes of millennials when they’re writing. What are they looking for, exactly?
The crux of all journalism, despite the prevalence of big media houses, is still in citizen journalism. Independent, uninfluenced and intricate blogs are one of the favourite niches millennials choose to dabble in.
Thanks to the internet and a multitude of other factors, we’re living in an age of increased social awareness. These aren’t just distant and hard-to-believe issues. Things like poverty, unemployment, and politics touch each and every one of us. Inequality and unfairness act as a trigger for many millennials to start blogs.
A popular form of blogging is the so-called “opinion piece.” First, millennials read about problems that exist on a national, regional or global level. They analyze them and post their own view of that problem or event. It is precisely these blogs that form critical thinking and give us a variety of views to analyze and choose from.
The true importance of millennial citizen journalists is that they are shamelessly biased in the healthiest way possible. Because of this reason, citizen journalism will take over the media space in the next 50 years or so. They don’t claim that they’re unbiased and are here to inform and tend to take a stance the next moment.
People have no problem with opinions - instead, they have a problem with lies. Many news outlets, both on TV and in digital media claim to be impartial, but there have been scandals exposing them to be not. It’s not bad to have an opinion, but it’s bad to market it as objective news.
Millennial journalist blogs are on the rise and give people a fresh view from individuals who care about the future of our country and planet. It is exactly what we need to maintain freedom of expression and freedom of information.
To improve their writing skills
Writing is like the lovely plants in your garden – You consistently care, and you nurture them to see them blossom. Similarly, to blossom into a great writer, you have to keep writing without being away from it for a long time.
Millennials love to blog because it gives them the freedom to specialize in a certain niche that they find attractive. School and college assignments didn’t do much to improve our writing skills, right? Certainly not, as many millennials were confined by formal educational conventions.
With blogging, all the rules and limitations disappear instantly. Blogging gives every person a chance to express themselves and write willingly and organically.
“Blogging is about the best writing practice you can get,” tells us William Rogers from BestEssay.com. “Nobody is forcing you to do anything and you can write about anything. However, there are also lessons you will learn through disappointment.
Blogging is a reality where you won’t become popular if you don’t promote your content or if you don’t write about something people care about. It’s an excellent first contact with the business world for most millennials.”
How exactly does improving your writing skills lead to your first business experiences? Blogging, to put it simply, is a game of popularity. There is supply and there is demand.
If you supply enough blog posts about a topic that interests people, your long content will be in demand. That’s how every service and product exists and coexists with customers, clients, and other services.
Millennials have a very pronounced entrepreneurial spirit within them. They want to explore and experience everything firsthand. Blogging refines key skills that are needed in almost every career. Students who start writing blogs in college see their assignment writing skills improve by a large margin.
Writing and creating often lead to education too. Successful bloggers get asked questions like “How do I rush my essay writing process?” or “How can I get inspiration for writing?”
By blogging, we connect with other people and find out more about them and their passions. While doing this, we adopt one of the most essential skills a person can have - the art of expression.
To express themselves and vent
Compared to the 1980s and 1990s, millennials are definitely under more pressure than ever. There is no more time for committing to one thing or niche. Most people in their 20s and early 30s have to work multiple jobs, juggle responsibilities and pay off debts.
There’s an enormous number of things to worry about, which can lead to neglecting personal well-being and mental stability. Humans need to share their emotions, thoughts, and fears. The modern lifestyle prevents us from doing so, but blogging has emerged as an unorthodox solution to this issue.
Even today, many millennials treat their blogs as personal diaries. They vent about their problems, frustrations, and dreams, as well. Writing has a profoundly therapeutic effect on our minds and how we handle the pressure of everyday life.
It also helps with critical thinking. When you write down your emotions, you get a chance to review the thought, again and again, something which is not entirely possible through thinking alone.
Just like when we talk, writing makes the thing we’ve written more real. By venting and expressing their opinions, millennials compensate for the lack of serious friendships and relationships in life. It’s not an ideal way of life by all means, but it’s an emergency solution that helps many people stay afloat during hard times.
Blogging is also a way for millennials to find like-minded people and share things and advice. People with similar problems and experiences can help one another. By writing blogs, you enter a network of individuals who are willing to embrace you and make you one of their own.
To make money
What are blog posts if not content? Almost every big business and brand needs content to support their existing marketing campaigns. It’s one of the ever-present and very profitable industries that have risen from nothing in the last 15 years. For millennials, blogging is a viable way of earning money for several important reasons.
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Flexible work hours. Whether you’re a freelancer or working for a company, all you need is a laptop and internet connection to do research and send you to work. You can work from anywhere and everywhere. No 9-5, getting up early and waiting for the bus/train.
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The more you work, the more you get paid. For millennials, money is a problem more often than not. One day, you can write one blog post, while the other day, you can write ten and earn as much as you work.
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You get to do what you love. By starting a blog, millennials usually promote their passions and interests. If their venture blows up, they could end up making money by doing something they truly adore. It’s a privilege not many people have.
Blogging only gets easier and you gain more experience. You will learn about tricks relating to SEO, content promotion and digital marketing. All those skills are invaluable in today’s business climate.
To build a portfolio
When you want to apply for a job, people won’t just look at your skills. They will take a close look at your portfolio and experience. Blogging is a self-sustainable way of boosting your portfolio without having to “work for someone.” How does this work?
Let’s say you want to get a job as a writer for a digital marketing blog. Instead of going on and on about your theoretical knowledge, you can just provide them with a list of your previous work related to the subject. Blog posts are proof of being skilled and know what you’re doing.
The more you write, the bigger your resume grows. Millennials find it notoriously difficult to balance skills and experience, which is further exacerbated by unrealistic expectations from employers.
Using blogging, they get free experience and end up training themselves in essential skills. And in recent years, more and more companies have started prioritizing blogging as an essential skill and form of experience.
Concluding thoughts
Millennials have found blogging to be the easiest and most accessible form of sharing their thoughts with the world. They either want to promote an idea, find those who are similar to them or promote their writing as a skill that sells. Most of them face oversaturation as the biggest obstacle, which ultimately leads to them quitting fairly early. With the further development of the blogosphere, things are only going to get more difficult.