#bloginstead is a strong positive response to social media burnout. It is an intentional community of human beings who use personal blogging as a primary social space online. #bloginstead honors communication on a human scale, at a natural pace, directed by the values that govern face-to-face interaction. The members of this movement refer to themselves affectionately as Blogtown.

How did #bloginstead get started?

I was so. very. tired. of. Facebook. Also Instagram. Also the whole slick, spinning, frantic, anxious, shallow, consumerist world of social media. I run a social media platform for work. I am fully aware of the enormous role social media plays in human interaction in this era, and I have been grown up too long to believe we can turn back that clock. But I wanted somewhere else to go. I thought and thought. And voila! #bloginstead evolved. Read the inaugural post here.

Who decided to try it?

Community is an essential ingredient and purpose of #bloginstead. Real community – the kind that doesn’t involve carefully scripted facades to cover the abyss of insecurity you feel in response to your neighbor’s carefully scripted facade. So I began this experiment by inviting some friends to #bloginstead with me. Read the list of pioneer #bloginstead members here.

How did #bloginstead lead to Blogtown?

Three days. That’s what we said. We’d try to #bloginstead for three days, and for those three days, we agreed not to communicate (at least with each other) on social media. Before lunch time on the second day, nobody wanted #bloginstead to end. You can’t always have what you want…but sometimes you can! Read about the founding of Blogtown here.

I want to move to Blogtown! How can I join?

The most common feeling, upon arriving in Blogtown, is RELIEF. It’s difficult to grasp how aggravating social media is until you walk out on it and try something else. Blogging is slower, deeper, less commercial (at least in Blogtown). It’s an antidote to the rat race and the one-finger scroll. Give it a try! Read about how to move to Blogtown here.

See you in Blogtown!