Will ‘Pinstagram’ Kill the Personal Style Blog?

Fashion blogger Leandra Medine, known as The Man Repeller, wrote a post last week about why she was quitting mobile app Instagram. She challenged herself to refrain from checking the app over a weekend.

In her post, Leandra wrote being disconnected reconnected her to the offline world: “I read Hunter S. Thompson, enjoyed a view for the sake of looking at it, not filtering it, took note of my walk home from the nearest subway … recognizing three buildings I never had before.”

While digital disconnection can be a welcome relief, Leandra was even more surprised when she noticed a 16% increase in her blog’s page-views from two days before.

Bloggers, or more appropriately “influencers,” have to divide their attention between their blog and their social networks, which could include Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram. While the individual influencer’s efforts might be stretched across multiple platforms, their audience might feel stretched out attempting to keep up with every update.

The reason why there was an increase in views might correlate with Leandra not uploading to Instagram and her audience missing their dose of man repelling, therefore going to the main blog.

As Pinterest and Instagram increase in popularity, serving content in visual, digestible bits has become a trend for bloggers, from site redesign to spending more time creating shorter bits of content.

Even Man Repeller had a site redesign, featuring one photo and headline from each post, without the traditional editorial blurbs under each headline.

Leandra further writes, “Does an impressive following on an app cancel out the consideration and work that goes into scribing a blog though? …due to the rise of Kindles and iPads, will bloggers [find] themselves on the brink of change because of snappy, quick-and-easy-to-consume inspiration?”

While journalists and content marketers struggle to deliver short and long form content, bloggers are also divided on whether they too should follow the trend. As it becomes easier to become a content creator, will those with the skills to create long form content be valued and not feel forced to adapt to the mainstream?