The concept behind Charlotte Ward’s X account is simple. Every day, Ms. Ward, 22, makes a long walk, generally through lush woods near her home in Yorkshire, in England, before sitting for dinner. And every night, she publishes three photos of the landscape of her walk with a photo of what she ate.
Sometimes she heads for the Yorkshire Dales to hike in the Highlands, other days, she crosses the streets of London, but the result is always the same: three photos of the walk and one of what she ate. It was a perfect recipe for its growing audience.
Since its creation of a @hikingshawty account in April 2024, Ms. Ward has accumulated more than 170,000 subscribers and has built an audience of almost 200,000 in an X community that it created entitled “Today, I walked …” Many people who meet its articles express their desire to live a quieter life like its own, spending time in nature and making cakes from zero.
For Ms. Ward, who initially started her account to share photos of her hikes with friends, the attention was surprising.
“It’s a bit crazy,” she said in a recent interview. “I posted the first and he had a few hundred likes, and I said to myself:” Oh, it’s cool. And then when I arrived at the third post, it became completely viral.
Ms. Ward said that she started the daily work of walking during the covid-19 locking with her father, Sean.
“My father always liked to walk and hike, and he dragged us hikes when we were younger, but I didn’t really appreciate it,” she said. “But one night, it was just like,” Do you want to come and walk with me? ” And we have just walked since. »»
Although Ms. Ward walks with her father when he does not work, she makes the majority of her hikes alone, attaching a pair of Hoka Anacapa hiking sneakers and leaving in the woods.
According to Internet standards focused on today’s artificial intelligence, Ms. Ward’s content can look like a less complicated return to a time – before the concept of “boredom publication” launched – when Instagram was filled with photos filtered in French Pagays Nashville and granular sunset photos and that X was a place to display jokes with low challenges or sharing interesting.
But for Ms. Ward, the practice of sharing photos of her day is simply a way to stay in touch with friends, which was exactly the initial use of social media. And the popularity of his account is proof of nostalgia for an era before optimized algorithms.
The content of Ms. Ward has inspired other creators to go out and share photos of their walks and drinks and food they consume later, with messages in the “today I walked …” community from all over the world.
“I love the way this account influences us more outside,” recently shared the emieode journalist on X, praising Ms. Ward for having offered people a way to take a step back “the noise and distractions of daily life”.
“I think a lot of people on social networks do things that are extreme or stupid for opinions,” said Ward. “My account is a bit like a change of rhythm – it’s more the simple things in life.”
Although Ms. Ward’s account encourages others to appreciate their environment, it also gave her a chance to do the same.
“Before I start walking, especially where I live, I wanted to honestly move,” she said. “I said to myself:” I don’t like England. There is nothing here for me. But as I started to walk here, there is no place that I prefer to live. »»
