The pauses between typing sessions became longer. I clenched and stretched my fingers to relieve 10 mini-cramps. My brain reached a mental break—I ran out of keywords to search. All my past results on Google came up with the same content, recycled to appear unique and competitive for higher rankings.
I am on the hunt. My search includes travel blogs, or more specifically, travel stories. I am looking for journal entries filled with action, suspense and dialogue. Not a quick bullet list or step-by-step itinerary.
I’m looking for stories about a sketchy figure at night; a conversation filled with awkward pauses and difficult language barriers with locals. Let the blogger tell me of his or her experience, Depeche Mode style:
“Let me take you on a trip
Around the world and back…”
The field of blogging encompasses nearly every topic of interest. The sub-field of travel blogging is no better, with bloggers having reached and recorded every country, landmass and culture.
Posts that once included bizarre and dreamlike tales of hippies living the life of a “nomad” can be produced and published faster than a breeding rabbit on caffeine.
Am I simply too picky in the content I consumed? Is my reading palate fit only for the best in travel advice? Should I give up all hope of finding a source of travel inspiration?
To answer these questions, let me see what the internet has to offer.
First, I try typing in the words “travel blogs.” The result was two Google search pages of articles reading “Top 10 best ravel blogs to read RIGHT NOW” (or similar phrasing). The queried urls contained how-tos, where-to-gos, and what-to-dos; all factual, grid-structured content meant only as bait for Google’s competitive search algorithm.
I must try again.
“Adventure blogs” is my next attempt. Okay, a little better. Can we see if there are any personal stories?
Hmm, here’s a travel company that tells news about mountaineers, hikers, and deathwishers. Sadly, it’s just factual: this is what they did; this is why they did it; the end. Yeah, I get lost in the proper nouns; John so-and-so from this-and-this company went here-and-there, while referencing this offbeat inside-joke that you are supposed to know ALL ABOUT.
All this information about people I’ve never heard of and places I am supposed to know. The publisher doesn’t give me a reason to care.
After a couple more failed queries, and finding myself deep into page 6 of the search results, I ask Google the question I really sought:
“Why don’t travel blogs tell stories?”
Now I am in the landfills of Google. Articles pop up from various 10+ year old Blogspot.coms, their creators giving one final cry for a return to the heyday of blogging as their sites slowly drop in search rankings, suffocated by the SEO packed, processed and replicated blogs of the next generation.
Nevertheless, the results assured me I wasn’t alone.
Deep in the forgotten cobwebs of the internet, I found people like me. But my relief that I wasn’t the only one in this backwards thinking quickly faded into the background as I became eager to hear their take on this new trend in blogging.
One of the best articles that showed up is by James Clark on his blog Nomadic Notes. He explains the rise and fall of the “golden era in blogging”—when people read blog posts as a way to escape their mundane lives—and provides links to various blogs that are dedicated to telling a story, not to search rankings.
Sadly, many of these sites are no longer updated, with some left to drift away 2-3 years ago. But there were still a handful of storytellers out there still keen on sharing their passion. A few notable names I gleaned and began to follow are:
A small list to be sure, but it was a good place to start.
As I looked up from the screen to process my research, sadness touched my heart. These stories came from the end of dozens of journeys and adventures, spanning multiple continents, friendships, and trials. These bloggers have traveled around the world and told everyone about it. Now there is no more to tell. The crevasses of the map have been filled in. I finally found my way to the starting line, only to see everybody had already finished.
It would appear that my desires are not felt by anybody anymore.
Articles are now simplified for the modern user. They include quick consumable bullet points of places, foods, and itineraries. In my findings, the top search results have several similarities:
And I get it, we all need some high-ranking articles to help get our blog up on those search results. But jeez, when will it stop? When will they unleash their soul, unfueled by the desires and lusts of this world, and driven to open the floodgates to the dreamland of our youth?
Maybe this change in attitude towards blogging is just a passing fad.
I doubt it.
The world of our time is motivated by profit, the malicious greed of advantage and success overpowering the small voice of creativity, crushing it below the black and shadowless grip of—
Whoops, getting carried away.
As I proceed over the course of time to publish my ramblings on the many adventures life takes me through, I hope that it may inspire you to do the same. I hope to create a community of storytellers, motivators, and learners who want to experience the best out of life.
In my eyes, a blogger exaggerates on the worldview of how all people should believe; the belief in taking life slowly, to sit on and enjoy the smallest of moments, meditating on the subtleties of texture and form of the things, ideas and concepts currently surrounding our senses. A good writer replaces your conscious with a new one, filled with excitement and adventure—so long as you keep reading.
I believe I was created to inspire others. I hope this blog succeeds in that regard.
Molon Labe