For context, I’m writing this in the first week of May and I’ve been at home for a couple of months now. I just wanted to have a little record of how this has changed and mostly not changed my blogging experience. I would love to know how it’s been on your end as well.
For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you’ve certainly read me gushing about the community around here as well as the social aspects of blogging. For me, that has always been a big part of the experience and one that I happen to cherish. I have to say it this hasn’t changed at all.
I figure that for people who are more outgoing and are currently missing out on socializing, this particular aspect may be more important than ever. Blogging is a great way to get some form of communication going with your fellow anime fans. It’s less hectic and let’s say aggressive than more fast paced platforms such as Twitter or reddit and it gives you time to arrange your thoughts and type out longer posts if you have more on your mind. I know it can feel like not enough feedback at times but the positivity and constructiveness of the comments make up for it in my opinion.
In any case, it is a real good reminder that even during these strange times, we are not alone and we can still come together to enjoy some pretty animated peoples.
Like I said, for me this aspect really hasn’t changed much. Maybe if I send another 6 months or so at home, it will take on even more importance but I appreciated it before and I appreciate it now.
Unexpectedly, what did change, was how much the blog helps structure my life and keep me a bit more sane. Since I started working from home againand do long work hours, I have a tendency to just work. Like all the time. I feel like I’m basically always at the office. I no longer have a neat little separation between professional and personal life. It’s not as dramatic as it sounds but it can get draining.
The blog keeps me at least a little on track. By maintaining my daily posting schedule it forces me to put everything aside and write a little each day. It also encourages me to watch anime since I have to write about it. It sort of makes sure that I make time for my hobbies and that is surprisingly important right now.
And beyond that it’s a little piece of normal. It’s something familiar and predictable that I can just do every day ,like I’ve always done before. For me, there’s a certain comfort in that. When I have enough time to dedicate to the blog to create something I’m actually happy with, I feel satisfied in a way that’s different from my work commitments. I dunno, I guess as sad as it sounds, my blogging makes sure that I remember to have a life.
I know how lucky I am to still have work and I’m not complaining. I’m happy that the blog helps me a bit with finding a balance cause I’m not great at that. It was somewhat the reason I took up blogging in the first place so to see it in action is kind of cool. Even if it’s not blogging, I do recommend that anyone who is having trouble with quarantine life take up a hobby they can do regularly from home. It helps a lot.
As for how these new circumstances have affected my general experience with blogging, well it’s mixed. I’m an amateur anime blogger, so nothing really changes on my end. I still watch anime and then sit down and write a bit about it. Sometimes I write about stray thoughts I have while thinking about anime. I make up drinking games. I take way too many screencaps. None of that has changed at all. Since I’m not a seasonal blogger, anime production delays have affected me in any way either.
But it has changed a few things on the back end. Most notably an uptick in views. I figure there are more people at home and a little bored that are just reading whatever they can find. I’m sure most of my fellow bloggers will have noticed more visitors and views as well. This hasn’t really translated in likes and comments but it’s still sot of nice to get 100 more views a day. I’m already working on not getting use to it. I’m sure they’ll vanish as people get back to their lives soon enough.
I also have to say that my blog stat boost is absolutely nothing compared to my pinterest uptick where things just went crazy and stats keep climbing. I sort of don’t get much out of my Pinterest stats because I don’t have much merit. It’s basically just a glorified shared cloud for my screencaps. Still, Lita did make fun of me for my boards so I guess I got something out of it.
Are you guys blogging while stuck at home? If so, has your blogging experience been affected in any way?
Life wise, nothing really changes. I’ve always been the home type person so staying home for who knows how long is not really an issue for me. Just that I’m worried about job because I’m unemployed even before the covid-19 began so finding one after this is gonna be even harder than before.
Blogging wise, I love it. I found comfort in blogging. Although I don’t do it often and my blog is just 4 months old, it’s…how do I say this…like the one thing I turn to after movies. I’m not good at keeping a journal (both for personal or hobby stuff), but I find blogging to be motivating, in a way.
“It’s less hectic and let’s say aggressive than more fast paced platforms such as Twitter or reddit and it gives you time to arrange your thoughts and type out longer posts if you have more on your mind.” I absolutely agree with you on this! Another reason why I like blogging more than Twitter and Instagram.
Oh I do hope you find a job after, it can be very stressful to be unemployed but I’m glad to hear that your blog has been comforting. Same ting for me.
i’ve been having a really hard time keeping up the blog. My mental health has taken a nosedive, and work has been really stressful for me. I’ve had to start doing food deliveries for DoorDash and even though I wear a mask and practice social distancing, I’m still scared of getting sick. I’d say at least it gets me out of the house, but it’s been so hot lately in Florida. I’d rather just stay in. The pay is pitiful too. This whole year sucks
That does sound extremely stressful. I hope it gets better soon
Working from home would destroy my brain, I have always strongly defined a separation between my work life and my home life. Thankfully for me, I haven’t stopped working at all throughout this entire thing, and my life hasn’t changed all that much aside from not being able to see people family and friends, made all the more difficult by me working nights.
I makes me wonder though, how much more I’d achieve on my blog if I had all day, every day’s worth of time to dedicate to it and the more social aspects of the blogging community.
Right now, it’s a matter of me getting up, proof reading, adding images and uploading while shovelling down some food and then going back to work. The one thing I am lamenting is how little time I have to read and comment on other people’s blogs.
It’s weird that, I’m busier now than I have been for a while, but have found a new groove in getting pretty regular uploads going again.
I probably wouldn’t get any blogging done if I had all day to do it…
My viewcount went down slightly, surprisingly…but that’s because the previous 6 months have an abnormally large amount of views due to things like the Demon Slayer collab (which has some of my best-performing posts), the Animanga Festival and end/start of season posts. I’ve noticed more commenting though, especially because for the past month or so I’ve put out more general weekly posts (like the “do you need great animation in your anime?” one) rather than focus on a single anime (like I generally do with OWLS), although I have had an recent focus on Wandering Son and personal experiences due to #AniTwitWatches, which may have alienated some people.
After not having enough time for Japanese classes in 2019 (had to plan for 2019 in 2018 and there was the possibility of not having enough space, so I didn’t want to risk it), I had enough space open up in 2020…bam! COVID-19 meant suddenly the classes are all from home, plus the year’s break affected my skills more than I thought it would (for instance, my speaking was not-quite-crap at the end of 2018, so it became crap again in 2020 and not being able to tell when people want to jump into a conversation, because it’s via Zoom/video, doesn’t help).
I’ve had more time to watch anime because quarantine, but suddenly challenges people have made to combat lockdown boredom show up and I want to participate in them, which affects my will to write too.
Quarantine sounds really tough on people who aren’t working.
I was practically a hermit before the lockdown anyway so it has made no difference to me. The only downside is the lack of new anime releases in the UK due to the virus so my output has been film heavy of late, alienating the few anime fans who visit my blog.
Wait do streaming platforms not have sensibly the same titles in the UK? I should check that. Traditionally, you guys get way more anime that we do. This is a big change
I assume you meant “ostensibly”.. 😉
Streaming services do have many titles but the difference is in which ones the UK distributors pick up for a physical media release. So it is not about “watching” anime for me but “reviewing” the ones getting a UK release since I’m promoting it for the distributors.
That means also discussing things like the DVD extras, run time, formats, etc which isn’t applicable via streaming, although Manga have suggested reviewers sign up to Funimation’s streaming channel to watch the titles they are also releasing, but I personally prefer physical media.
Whilst All The Anime continue with physical releases I’m not on their books, I’ve not heard anything from MVM about their future releases, so yes this is a big change.
Oh we don’t really have much access to physical media at all because of the silly language laws.
Language laws?
Yeah, we have language laws which means that media has to be available in French in order to be sold in English (or any other language). Ii doesn’t apply to online streaming because they are not local but it can make physical mediums difficult. For exmple a dvd would need to have both French and nglish summarris on the back or none at all..
Ah I see. Makes sense I guess, but its application is rather heavy handed and restrictive. And they wonder why piracy is so hot these days… 😛
there’s no need for piracy. Legal streaming had made loads of entertainment accessible to most people for a fraction of the price f physical medium (like less than 1%). It would be silly to pay more for a less legal and often lesser quality option.
I meant online piracy… 🙂
Oh man I am way too scared of getting my bank account hacked into. Besides Crunchy is free if you sit through one add per episode.
“The blog keeps me at least a little on track. By maintaining my daily posting schedule it forces me to put everything aside and write a little each day. It also encourages me to watch anime since I have to write about it. It sort of makes sure that I make time for my hobbies and that is surprisingly important right now.”
I wanted to quote the whole paragraph because, well, truth is pretty.
I think where I work would be insane to bring me back to the office. They get WAY more work out of me sitting at home! My blog helps me disengage, for exactly the reasons you talked about.
“Most notably an uptick in views.”
Me, too. It was almost funny — I could tell when swaths of the USA went back to work, because on that day, I saw a drop in views. Then it edged back up.
I hope those folks aren’t reading at work! I’d hate to get someone in trouble…
“I also have to say that my blog stat boost is absolutely nothing compared to my pinterest uptick where things just went crazy and stats keep climbing.”
Mine, too. It used to be 3rd or 4th in terms of sources of traffic. Now, it’s almost ways second, after Google. Even WordPress Reader can’t catch it.
I’d love to tell myself my content’s just that good! But no, it took a pandemic to drive my stats up.
I wonder if I should feel guilty? Or happy that maybe someone found a little distraction in some of my posts…
Let’s go with happy. You helped someone find a bit of entertainment when they needed it most!
TBH being stuck at home didn’t really change much for me, I still had a lot of school work to do so anytime i would have had to blog was spent on assignments. But now that the semester is done and i am still in quarantine I intend to spend more time blogging.
I hear you – I need a vacation myself
Stores around my area are starting to open slowly since the premier of Ontario has now given the go ahead to re-open places.
In terms of buisness nothing much has really changed i’m still getting reviews being put out on my site,readership is kind of down as of now,employment opportunities for me well i actually tried applying to writing for Niche Gamer and at one point even Exclusvely games but i never really had any response from them back.
Thankfully i am able to get the stuff i am looking for on Amazon like anime,games and manga and other assorted stuff and these days panic shopping has ease down as of now.
I’m actually perfectly comfortable being on my own and i don’t really feel any bit of lonliness at all either then again i have my parents and also theres the online anime community that interact with either on here or on disqus with places like Gematsu or Silliconera or on the online anime forums like Anilist.
But overall though life hasn’t really changed that much for me even with the virus i do however miss going to value village,pawn shops,video stores and video game stores and as always stay safe,stay at home and always practice social distancing in case you ever have to go out for essentials.
-K Anthony
Just came by to say I loved the Konosuba gif you used . The movie was awesome ! Glad you are doing well ☺️
I thought it was perfect for illustrating quarantine!
Interesting insights here. I’m stuck working from home now, which has given me a little more time than usual to play games and write about them. I’ve also seen that surge in views without a surge in likes or comments, and I chalk it up to the virus as well — a combination of being out of work and bored. Doesn’t mean much to me without the reader engagement, but it’s nice if more people are reading what I’ve written, if only for a while. Since the virus in my own country is being so badly mismanagement on the national level, maybe I can hope for this surge to continue? I’d prefer things to go back to normal, even if my views fall.
In another way, though, I like the current situation. Not the pain and suffering and death, of course; I wish that would end today. But since I’m an extreme introvert, the social distancing part of it makes a great excuse for me to not have to do anything. It’s like a vacation from life. I know this will end at some point and I’ll be forced to go back out and pretend I’m a more or less normal guy again, but for now I’m happy to be shut in. Again, not at the cost of the virus, but since I can’t do anything about that other than follow the guidelines I may as well make the best of it.
I’m with you. If the world could go back to normal for everyone else but I could continue to stay home and avoid everyone, that would be great!
“But since I’m an extreme introvert, the social distancing part of it makes a great excuse for me to not have to do anything. It’s like a vacation from life. ”
You can’t see if (at least, I hope you can’t!), but I’m nodding in agreement. I could work like this the rest of my life…
Ha, don’t worry, I don’t have cameras everywhere. Not yet, anyway!
It will be hard to adjust back to “normal” life once it starts again, that’s for sure.
Mothlly April and May have been above average. Not really in unique viewers, though in April I aboved averaged that, but I find a lot of people coming back to read my articles more. Like I assume they glance at it first and just come back.
I am not fit for work so on benefits, so in schedule, nothing really changed. I do notice that I do seek out more contact with bloggers. My real life friends I do not socialise online with as much, I have weak lungs so I am kinda scared of the whole thing, my friends I feel like I disappoint by being a bit reclusive. Interacting with all of you feeds my socializing needs but I feel less pressured. Like we are used to talk each other trough distance so talking a bit more feels like an upgrade rather than a downgrade.
So I think interacting with you all is keeping me sane and you in a way have become my safespace during this thing.
Awwww, well you’re always welcomed
In a way, my blogging experience has been more nagative while stuck at home. The thing is, until I can find a new job, my work is all freelance and that’s kinda fallen through the cracks since the lockdowns, largely because a lot of palces no logner need radio ads written due to them being temproarily closed as places of business. So, I’m mostly scrambling around for jobs rather than blogging, which sucks, because it means I have to rush things a little.
In terms of stats though…there was a brief drop when the lockdown started in the UK, but they’re climbing now, so that’s a definite postiive!
I’M sorry to hear that – it must be rough. I hope you can find steadier work soon
Believe me, I do too. But, hey ho. Can only do what I can do.