This Dog Will Change Your Life

The Dogist is the name of Friedman’s dog-inspired blog and social media identity. Friedman has Dogist pages on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter, but is best known for his presence on Instagram, where he has over 7 million followers. On its surface, Friedman uses The Dogist to “post photographs of dogs that [he] encounter[s] on the street” (xiii). He launched the account in 2013 after taking a trip overseas and photographing dogs in Vienna, Austria. This trip made him realize how important both dogs and photography are to him. He combined these two passions and came up with The Dogist.

The Dogist is also meant to be a parody of The Sartorialist—a fashion blog featuring images of fashion on the streets of New York City. Friedman decided to toy with the fashion blog’s concept and feature dogs instead. What began as a way for Friedman to invest in his passion for canines soon became an internet phenomenon and a rich online community. The Dogist has brought countless people together, inspiring love and connection over a common interest: dogs. The tenor of The Dogist page is “curious, friendly, unafraid to be silly, informative but not in a pedantic way” and “inclusive because the message, too, is inclusive” (xvii).