Why the Lifestyle of Influencers & Bloggers Looks so Attractive & What’s the Reality

Hana Klokner 1 March 2017

I’ve been interviewed a couple of times for online magazines, students writing their thesis and entrepreneurs starting new projects. They keep asking me the same question – why do people find it so attractive to become bloggers? Should I try to become one too? It looks like bloggers get to live a cool, fun and happy life. But is that really true?

1. Bloggers Have Fun All Day Long

What You May Think It Is: People think that bloggers are as free as they want to be. Their Facebook and Instagram feeds are full of it. It looks like they only do what they love, they spend time in cool places, they don’t go to work, but they go out, eat out and have fun all day long. If the blogger is over thirty and she or he and her partner have children, they have a nanny who takes care of them. Basically, life sorted.

What Is Real: Most of the time, what is highlighted on social media is true – yet it’s amplified. Bloggers won’t talk about going to toilet or take a picture of filling in their tax return (although sometimes they tweet about it). Bloggers do work hard, and I know from my experience that writing an average blog post takes anywhere between 2-8 hours. Blogging can be as fun as the blogger wants it to be.

What Is A Myth: Many times you will see bloggers eating out in really cool or posh places. Or wearing designer clothes, new outfit every day, and you’ll be thinking – how the hell do they do that? Don’t fool yourself, though. Sometimes what you see is a pre-calculated editorial calendar of life events. And many times, they buy clothes, they wear them once, and return them with a tag they never cut off.

2. They Work Anytime & From Any Place In The World

What You May Think It Is: It looks like bloggers are born anywhere. Not only they pop all over the globe, they also move place to place and travel in any timezone. Blogging must be a great way to build your personal brand and get lots of freebies, too.

What Is Real: Unless the blogger is a travel blogger, it’s unlikely you’ll find them every week in a different city. But because being a blogger is so flexible and you can write on trains and planes, we do get more opportunities to travel when it suits us. For example last year, I traveled to Paris, Prague, Slovakia, New York, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, all while blogging and having clients. It is very exciting, yet very exhausting.

What Is A Myth: Sometimes people get the wrong idea because of the #ThrowbackThursday pictures and “memories” posted on social media. Other times, taking a picture at luxurious resort in reality is just having a drink there.

3. Bloggers Get To Make Great Friends & Connections

What You May Think It Is: For many people, to be a blogger means automatically belonging to the “right” clique. Everyone’s cool looking, wearing latest trends, or at least they’re very nerdy in the topic they blog about. Always surrounded by friends, bloggers live a very social life.

What Is Real: Most of the work the bloggers do is done from their homes and local coffee shops (where most people are strangers to them). When they go out with our friends or we get invited to an event, it is an opportunity to socialise.

What Is A Myth: When you see bloggers going from party to party on daily basis, you can be sure that kind of lifestyle is unsustainable. Most bloggers I know live a “home life”. In fact, they turn down opportunities to party, because their own social and work schedule is far more important than meeting new people all the time.

4. They’re Always Happy

What You May Think It Is: Looking at the pictures of your favourite bloggers, it may look like they have a perfect life. Everything is in bright saturated colour. They smile and perhaps never cry. Especially personal brand on Instagram whose smiles never leave their faces.

What Is Real: Many times a picture won’t pass if the blogger doesn’t smile – that’s true. I know for myself that the wider my smile is the better I look in pictures. Everyone I ask for opinion says that. It doesn’t mean I don’t wake up with good mood, though. The point is that because we’re the face behind the blog, we must look presentable. Imagine we’d be taking pictures while crying and being angry. It just doesn’t really work that way.

On other note, many bloggers suffer from anxiety and depression and they talk about their mental health on their blogs and social media. In fact, we tend to be more open about it that most other public figures.

Finally, are we happier than the rest of the world? I don’t think we’re much different, only except one thing – we seek out our happy moments and make our best to capture them. We want others to see that everyone can make a choice to be happy on daily basis. After all, isn’t Instagram a good example of that?

What Is A Myth: There isn’t really much fake. Like I said, you won’t see the bloggers cry publicly. It’s not because they’re afraid to show their red eyes. It’s because no one really takes pictures like that.

5. Bloggers Live A Healthy Lifestyle

What You May Think It Is: Veggie juices, plant-based eating, vegan cakes, daily gym visits. It looks like all bloggers are making conscious choices all the time.

What Is Real: To be honest, most of this is real! When you work from home and live a demanding lifestyle, you start to prioritise your health at some point. I know for myself that working in pyjamas is the worst idea. My day starts after a gym visit, putting on some makeup and clothes, and finally sitting at my desk to do the work.

What Is A Myth: If you never see a blogger eating junk food or ice-cream or doughnut. Every blogger has that one thing he can’t live without. We’re all human after all. And calories on the weekend don’t count anyway, right?