This Is What Writing Is To Me Often when we read, we catch ourselves getting lost in the words and never quite realize that the words you are reading are words that the writer either wrote or typed. As for what you’re reading now is what I am typing. It happens to us more than we come to realize. As for me, it often happens when I pick up my daily one month dose of Vogue magazine.
Articles, stories, bibliographies, song lyrics, poetry, quotes, they’re all things we associate with that we are surrounded by every day. Quite often on social media. We log in to our Facebook, twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, and any other social media that you prefer to use. You start to scroll down and then start clicking on links that capture your interests. It’s hard not to do when the title is catchy or when your friends encourage you to check it out. We share news, gossip, videos, and articles to one another with the hope that the person you’re sharing it to enjoys it as much as you because you know them and you know that they like similar things that you like. It’s always the things we love and are interested in that we take time to read more into.
There is a list of pages I like on Facebook and people, brands, and companies I follow on twitter and instagram. I have the urge to follow the things I like and enjoy reading and getting the latest news from them in every social media possible. And with these social media, we have the power to respond to the things we like and are interested in with a whole different approach that wasn’t possible centuries ago. We start to create a relationship with the writer as soon as we like their post or picture on instagram because of their quote or favorite the 140 characters or less tweet and even liking or reblogging a writer’s thought or joke on Tumblr. To me, everyone is a writer. When you’re typing out your thoughts or frustration, you are writing and the reader creates a connection because they feel as though they understand the writer, just as the writer understands the reader. Writing is something that takes form into many things. Music, movies, Facebook post, Twitter post, Tumblr post, instagram captions. And we get to respond to it by giving it power and reading it.
Sometimes it’s not an article or story or video or lyrics, sometimes it happens to be a blog or magazine. Some people follow blogs because the blogs have a connection to the follower/ subscriber. They share a same interest and the same goes for magazines. There are different types of blogs and magazines, and we follow and subscribe according to what we are interested in. For instance, I’m a college student majoring in Fashion Design and I have subscriptions to Vogue and follow fashion blogs and follow certain fashion magazines on all my social media accounts so I always know what is happening in the fashion world and know the latest news on designers, collections, and fashion shows. It’s what I’m interested in and I can call the September issues of Vogue my best friend because we share so much in common. We share the interest of fashion and designers. Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue aims to capture the eye of people who share the interest and passion for fashion. In a way, we often feel like what we read is written for us, and that’s because it is. The writer’s approach is to get the reader interested in what they write and they do that by writing about the things they like which then results to us making that connection with the writer. And now with technology, we have more power to connect and reach to the writer.
Often we care what the writer is writing because we as the reader already know the writer and ourselves share a same interests and often it leads to the writer introducing you to more things that you might end up liking as well because you see yourself similar to the writer, based on what you’re reading. For instance, as I read my stack of fashion magazines, the writer is telling me about what is trending and what I may like. Making that connection with me by both introducing something I may be interested in and by talking about the something I like. It has happened many times. And I will admit that the writer often influences me a lot. Not only do I get inspired by what the writer is saying when its talking about the same interest we share, but when they also talk about something that is a part of the same interest. I am a sucker for books and fashion and adore Alexa Chung to the point where I wish to be her. And while one day reading a Vogue magazine, I came upon a page in the magazine that talked about her and how soon she would be releasing her own book which would talk about her fashion sense and the many people that inspired it. And that’s when I decided I’d buy the book and read it myself. The book ended up being my new best friend, as the writer, Alexa, shared her own quotes that made me chuckle because of how relatable they were to me, the reader.
Writing has always been about connecting to the reader and it still continues to take that path, but with different forms. Writing in the 21st century is what encourages me to keep reading. No matter how high tech the technology continues to grow, we as the reader will still continue reading and connecting to the writer as the writer will continue to write to share their interests with whoever might enjoy reading it. No matter what the writer chooses to write, it will always have an audience that shares the same interest on what the writer is writing. As I re read, my “It” book by Alexa Chung for the millionth time, I will continue to build the relationship with the writer and admire what the writer has wrote because we share that connection of same interests. No one will read a boring book if they’re not interested in the book. No one will pick up a Cat Fancy magazine if they hate cats but an elderly woman who lives with a million cats might end up picking that magazine because they share the same interest, cats. Writing in the 21st century is and will always be, writing about whatever you are passionate about or are interested in, because someone is always going to share the same passion or interest. Like me with “It”.