Online Lives: Ama Addo
AMA Addo has been blogging about fashion, travel, wellness, and lifestyle for five years.
Ama, who was born in Ghana, is a film and broadcasting student in DIT. She started blogging at a young age.
“I was born in Kumasi, Ghana and moved to Ireland at the age of 9,” Ama said.
“I have been writing blogs since the age of 12 and have managed my current website, Albatroz & Co, for nearly five years.”
Although she shares a lot on albatrozandco.com, the 21-year-old has tried to spend more time away from social media.
“For the last eight months I have taken a hiatus from social media to try and strike a healthy balance between online promotion of my site and grounding myself.
“My social media use has taken a drastic cutback, but I average it out between three sittings a day where I bulk reply to emails and social media messages with the odd day off where I may just get lost scrolling through the many other blog posts other have shared on Facebook.
“What I enjoy about it is the wealth of information that is available there. You can keep up with someone in a more closer intimacy looking at their Instagram posts these days than the odd catch-up here and there.
“It’s a strange one that I think only sinks in when you remove yourself from the desensitising effect of saturation. That effect being the habit to then skim over everything and not take it in.”
Ama’s use of social media and websites has been a great benefit for her education.
“I know basic coding from blogging and have taken the path to build on those skills with coding classes in college.”
Ama says she became frustrated by some bloggers who seemed to be in the industry to get free things. “It seemed once the whole ‘Influencer’ boom came along, the status of blogger became muddled up in all of it.
“There was so much more emphasis on numbers that it was hard to see the people. I don’t think I overcame that challenge.
“My frustration with the whole scene just increased until I had to take a backseat to regain my blogger composure.”
Despite this, she says the Irish blogging community is helpful. “The Irish blogging community that I have come I contact with is basically the blog sphere version of an Irish mammy. The community has been very warm, open and accepting in my experience.
“It’s a brilliant resource and gateway to a wealth of information from people who are either learning or have become walking encyclopaedias.”
