Once in a while, The New York Times reminds me why it is I still pay over $40 a month for its print pub. But this weekend wasn't one of those magical times.
In a "news story" on Sunday, The Times published a traumatizing tale of "death by blogging" -- apparently the latest fatal syndrome caused by the Internet and its cursèd 24/7 existence.
The story detailed the great stress imposed upon bloggers who, as a result of job-related pressure and the incessant need to post (and post, and post!), skip meals and Zs -- and are thus taking on great health risks. In the past few months, The Times points out, the blogger community has lost 60-year-old Russell Shaw and 50-year-old Marc Orchant to heart attacks. Om Malik, 41, too, endured a heart attack, but survived to blog the tale.
Some bloggers, like TechCrunch's Founder Michael Arrington, haven't faced death just yet... but expect to: "At some point, I'll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen."
Here's a tip: Maybe you could get over yourself and take a vacation?
I'm not trivializing stress in the always-on blogger community, nor the health risks posed by stress. Well. Maybe a bit. But The New York Times' unscientific projection of a few unfortunate blogger breakdowns upon the whole community is sensationalistic and unproductive. It sort of makes me want to blog my own resignation letter from the Earth.
It seems that, overnight (while all but the blog writers were sleeping), we revamped our idea of bloggers from the pajama-clad lazies scarfing Hot Pockets in their parents' basements to modern-day warriors, dying for their cause (which is, by the way, to make ad money). To them, we owe our right to information overload, clad with imprecise, un-researched facts and grammatical errors.
The fact is, such generalizations serve little purpose. Bloggers and the blogosphere are about as diverse as, say, people on Earth. To start projecting a few anecdotal health or social phenomena upon the whole lot is, well... kinda stupid.
I suppose it won't be long now before a Google search for "hero" produces ads for "Support Our Bloggers" yellow-ribbon bumper stickers. (And, according to Silicon Valley entrepreneur Marc Andressen, here are some related headlines you can expect from the trusty Times in the near future.)
One idea that may very well be prevalent in today's world within literature, philosophy and spirituality may be that "We're angry about this, upset about that, but who has the time to do anything anymore?"
Thanks for the link Paul. Perhaps it will help raise positive consciousness or questions, for example: in order to have greater achievements associated with high purposes, must one work continuously, or if more people are positive catalysts and contributors to enabling urgent and important changes (and as a world we are more one on the related journey) is it possible that more of humankind could enjoy more of the related benefits as well as have more leisure, peace, happiness, fun and joy in the meantime? Perhaps it would help if periodically bloggers went for a walk in nature with a friend while trying to send positive energy into the interconnected universe without usage of a cell, ipod etc. ???
I think most people will agree on this one but how do we get out of this rut will be the greatest challenge for each one of us. This article sums up perfectly the issues at stake:
The article basically is pointing out some virtues of being "idle" and this sound pretty "un-western"!! I don't think this issue is one bloggers only but also to the vast majority of folks who have wired their existence around the internet. It's really an unpleasnat dilemma!!!
I understand professional blogging. By that I don't mean people who do it for a living, but people who do it as part of their job and in regards to professional issues. What I don't understand is what goes on in the minds of the rest of the bloggers out there. And by the way, blog, blogging and bloggers were not found in my 2003 version of spell check.
What has made us into the type of society that puts so much importance on "social" networking to the point that people are stressing over it? Why don't we want to be experiencing the real world anymore? Why do people want to spend more time in virtual worlds than they do in their own? Does society put so much pressure on us that we now find our solace in solitude? Busy schedules and lack of time can't be the reason.If one has time for blogging and creating virtual worlds to live in and explore (even at the expense of sleep or meals), this same time can be spent having bona fide social interaction. Have we become an egocentric society and the virtual world is the one we can live in and have it finally revolve around us? Is the virtual world perceived as being so much better than the one we live in? Maybe the recession is to blame, after all, it doesn't cost much to sit at the screen and type, whereas having the same interaction in the outside world means having to incur potential costs for transportation, entertainment, any consumables, babysitters fees, and my gosh, one may even have to make the effort to groom themselves before leaving the house.
Wouldn't it be great, even phenomenal, if one tenth of the energy that went into blogging went into something that actually could be used to improve the quality of life? I don't even mean in a save the world kind of improvement. How about planting a garden and eating some organic food? How about taking your kid (or pet, or self) to the park? How about visiting someone who is too old read your blog? How about going to a cafe and having a real discussion, in real time, with real people about anything? ooops, I guess all of the above might actually make the world a little better.
By way of disclosure, I am in my pajamas, drinking coffee. Am I succumbing?
Oh darn…I thought you meant webstress as in web mistress, not Web Stress (stress caused by the Internet) or webStress (testing your Internet infrastructure). The webstresses (rarrrr) can give you heart attacks too.
Sure thing... and there's no doubt it's very stressful when you're trying to also break stories on the always-on Internet ahead of several competitors. Recognizing job stress is one thing, building a whole Sunday news story about blogger death is quite another. Prediction: "Blogger death" will replace "dentist suicide" as the epidemic of the new era!
“Blogging Causes HerpesBloggers Shorter than Normal PeopleWant To Contract Malaria? Try BloggingBloggers Have Bad BreathLeprosy and Blogging May Be ConnectedHitler Probably BloggedNow Bloggers Aren't Even Wearing PajamasBlogging Fad Almost OverAnd of course, the inevitable, perennial favorite:Child Abuser/Serial Killer/Campus Shooter Had a Blogp.s. The Judy Miller memorial New York Times blogging story headline”
These findings are hilarious but, make sense to a certain extent. I don’t know about these above cited diseases but I am sure that blogging causes backache and possible blindness in the long run. How about diabetes? Anyway, I will stop blogging if she explains how it can cause malaria. I am from Senegal, and I know the dangers of that disease.
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As enterprises leap into the Web 2.0 world of blogging, commenting, and social networking, just 'being there' won't deliver ROI. You may want a 'Web Evangelist' to systematically harvest the feedback in order to polish your product or service.
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