“Journeys towards a green lifestyle”: Metaphors in green living blogs

Green living blogs authored by ordinary individuals play an important role in “translating” the complex issue of sustainability into everyday actions. Although bloggers often use metaphors to achieve this and metaphors are recognized as key tools for conceptualizing complex and abstract issues through simpler and more concrete ones, the use of metaphors on green living blogs has been under-studied. This paper analysed 222 posts from ten leading green living blogs and found that they mostly used Journey metaphors to discuss different aspects of green living. Bloggers regularly presented green living as a “journey” and themselves as “travelers” who are “still on the road” and they emphasized the positive aspects of “journeying” and of not having reached their “destination” yet. It is argued that by highlighting these positive aspects of journeys, bloggers inspire and empower readers to adopt green lifestyles.