Blogosphere: Friend or Foe?

Bryan Grey-Yambao (bryanboy.com), Tommy Tom (jakandjil.com), Garance Doré (garancedore.fr), and Scott Schuman (thesartorialist.com) sit front row at D&G’s Spring/Summer 2012 show equipped with laptops provided by the company.

Manila teen writes blog. Fashion industry takes notice. Gets a Marc Jacobs bag named after him, rubs elbows with fashion industry’s elite, and bags six-figure income in ad revenue.

This may sound far-fetched, but for Bryan Grey-Yambao, better known as Bryanboy, this modern-day fairy tale is the life that has been forged upon him by his popular fashion blog. Now a front-row fixture at fashion week and a good friend of Marc Jacobs himself, Bryanboy attests to the essential role that blogging plays in modern-day communications, entertainment, media, and marketing.

Ever since blogging took off in the last decade, blogs have become an indispensable resource for the discussion and expression of interests, as well as the dissemination of information. However, not until recent years has blogging garnered so much attention and had so much influence on the general population. Many companies and politicians alike have acknowledged the importance of connecting with their target market/audience online, as well as leveraging the cult-like following of popular independent bloggers to further their marketing efforts.

Given their rise in status from merely a form of personal expression to a respected and highly-embraced means of social media, blogs are surely here to stay. However, for the publishing industry which churns out the newspapers, magazines, and trade journals of which blogs are robbing their readers’ time and interest, this has raised concern of late. In an era where yesterday’s news has become like last year’s, blogs offer the instantaneous sharing of ideas which tangible publications cannot. For example, monthly magazines typically begin to materialize 2-4 months before the publication date, highlighting their emphasis on seasonal content, industry trends/issues, and general interest pieces, rather than of-the-minute news which blogs may offer. For personal lifestyle/interest, photo, and video blogs, the instant gratification of having a responsive online community of fellow bloggers acknowledge your talents and opinions is a further testament to blogs’ mounting appeal and staying power.

Personally, I do not think that blogs are a substitute to published material, but rather, they fill a void. Looking around my own room at stacks of unread magazines that I subscribe to and then at the list of my most visited websites, it is clear how my own appetite for fashion and business news is no longer satisfied by glossy pages primarily. Still, I do believe that the quality of content in a magazine is unrivalled by that of any blog, and for that, I will continue to open my mailbox to the bold masthead of the magazines I love. But hey, to each their own. This is a blog post after all.


About the author: Jessica Young

Jessica is a 2nd year student who is an avid magazine and blog reader. Her magazine collection measures taller than her 166cm self and her favourite blogs include jakandjil.com, dealbook.com, altamiranyc.blogspot.com, hanneli.com, and blogto.com.