Is a blogger a real writer?

I was reading a post on Thought Catalog when a question popped into my head: Is a blogger a real writer?

Yes, a lot of points in that article could be attributed to a writer, but they can also be attributed to a blogger or just a passionate reader (you don’t have to be a writer to read a lot, but apparently society stands firmly on belief that TV shows and news should be enough to stimulate the brain).

Other points can only be linked to a blogger (I would not imagine professional fiction writers to do such things, like using dates as article pieces, that just seems so mundane).

In the world of immediate sharing and constant information flow have the lines blurred and how bad is it?

Of course, professional online bloggers have their outlines on how to write (e.g. an essay of no more than 800 words…) depending on the publishing websites. But as that article points out, these are mostly vague representations of their own lives. So if a mediocre blogger would write about what they did each day, the professional blogger would use elaborate language to tell you how they felt that week.

So, wouldn’t in be journalism? I mean that’s what Carrie was doing in Sex in the City. I say it’s emotional journalism.

Then the question poses, will these bloggers ever write any works of fiction, or can they be labeled as a writer once their emotional essays/articles are published as collected works in a book format?

I think not. I must be clear here. I have nothing against bloggers and journalists. In fact I am both of these things; but I feel that in order for someone to call oneself a writer, one must possess the patience and the imagination, and not only the vocabulary, to write a novel. A writer creates characters that are not their best friends and family, a writer teleports us to places we might never see, a writer gives us hope, a writer draws conclusions.

Of course, maybe it’s just my perfectionism kicking in, telling me that that is what I should strive for. Maybe, it shouldn’t be so hard, but then again if a man calls himself a dentist, when he is an assistant, does it make him a dentist? Would you trust him with your smile?