Virtue Signaling: What and Why

choir conductor in black suit jacket with bowtie doing a hand signal

Recently I read that virtue signaling is not a productive, favourable, or profitable way to blog. In fact, the practice can lower your blog’s ratings on Google and other search engines.

What Exactly does it Mean?

The Oxford dictionary defines virtue signaling as…

the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one’s good character or the moral correctness of one’s position on a particular issue.

and Wikipedia has this to say…

Virtue signaling is a pejorative neologism for the conspicuous and disingenuous expression of moral values with the intent to enhance one’s own image.

As for pejorative neologism, I had to look that up too. Pejorative means:

  • Disparaging; belittling.
  • A disparaging or belittling word or expression.
  • Tending or intended to depreciate or deteriorate, as the sense of a word; giving a low or bad sense to.

and a neologism is:

a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not yet been fully accepted into mainstream language.

Why Might you Practice virtue signaling? (AKA my excuses)

As a freelance writer, the stuff I get paid to write is definitely more technical and factual, less warm and fuzzy, but my blog posts are more on the me, me, me side. It is a personal blog, after all, so I post about the things, people and events or issues that inspire or motivate me. Yes, my posts are based on my opinions and experiences, which do reflect my morals and sentiments, why would I right about things I know nothing about? That would be disingenuous; I am genuinely proud and appreciative of my grandkids and garden business. And my morals. But that may be why my blog does not rate highly on Google’s illustrious ranking system.

Please tell me I am not disparaging, belittling, or depreciating and I don’t think I have the tendency (or the creative ability) to make up new words. Do I?

Well, I’ve learned lots, perhaps you did too, but this rant is over. I suppose if I want to improve my blog’s ranking on Google I should write (brag) less about my garden achievements and adorable grandkids, and focus more on the health and wellness category.

Of course, if I do bow to the pressure, my pictures won’t be as cute!

Glass Half Full vs Half Empty

glass half full

A complete stranger recently referred to me as a “glass almost full kinda gal.” As one of my loyal blog followers, they only “know” me through my posts. This was an amazing revelation to me, but a thrilling and heartfelt one as that is exactly the motivation and inspiration for my blog. I believe in the glass half full vs half-empty outlook on life.

For blog post fodder, I specifically look for things, events, and people that inspire me in my daily life. You can find some of these featured along my sidebar, with links to their areas of expertise/talent. I admit some days the good stuff is hard to find and so I become motivated about something/someone annoying, so the post comes out as a rant, but the good outweighs the bad. At least that’s my intention, to feature the glass-half-full people.

I will be the first to admit and am immensely grateful for the fact that my life is pretty darn good. It is definitely half full instead of half empty. With six sweet grandchildren, 3 awesome sons, 2 loving daughters-in-law, and one great husband…what more can a girl ask for? Christmas is over, but did you notice that sounds like….” and a partridge in a pear tree?”

A glass almost-full kinda gal, I love it, in fact, I think it would make a great subheading for my blog. What do you think?