The Weekly R.E.P.O.R.T.
In the evolution of the digital blogging sphere, weekly R.E.P.O.R.T.s are what to look out for. A blend of photo dump and digital diary, the weekly R.E.P.O.R.T. is a growing trend, with 17.3K posts on TikTok and 13.7K on Instagram. Popularized by users like Dakota Warren, the trend itself usually comprises Reels and slideshows with contextual commentary. A cousin of the photo dump, the R.E.P.O.R.T. documents your week-to-week life in six categories, spelled out in an acronym: Reading displays your recent reads, whether they be books, articles, poetry, etc.; Eating shows off something you couldn’t get enough of the past week or a wonderful lunch date with your friends; Playing, which can stand for music (what songs have you been playing on repeat) or any sort of adventure, games, or other types of play you have engaged in; your latest Obsessions come next, which is a great, free-reign option to post whatever struck you in the past week; the second R stands for Recommending, and this is where you can connect with others. You can suggest local places to check out, an article you read (like this one, perhaps), a show you’ve loved, or just to be lazy; the final letter is for Treating yourself or those around you during the week. The format has variants as well, like the R.E.C.A.P., or the version suggested by Karen (@karenchronicles) on TikTok, where she suggested adding an S for Sounds onto the format. She suggests this could go for audiobooks, podcasts, and I think it could even involve concerts and music events.
Like the photo dump, the R.E.P.O.R.T. shows your life through your eyes. However, the format provides a creative, curated outlook on one’s life with the specific prompts while also fostering communal appreciation for life. The prompts vary in specificity, allowing you to interpret each part of the acronym at your discretion and week by week. You offer up recommendations, create conversations with your digital peers, and in that way recall the blogging and forum days of the early Internet in which community and conversation dominated. Only now, the format is largely visual. It further is just a reflection of one’s life in small chunks. What did I enjoy? And, more privately, something not documented to the world, what did I not enjoy? It can be a potential tool for healthy life evaluation, so long as you trust that not all you see is the whole truth. The R.E.P.O.R.T. is where detailed curation and reflection meet.
