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I clicked open my New York Times (I read the Kindle version) and was drawn to this story with this headline - In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop
I started the story and I found myself looking around for the punchline, but I’m afraid they - the New York Times and Matt Richtel - were serious. Each paragraph was more bizarre than the next. I felt as though I had to have stumbled onto an edition of the Onion.
This was the basic gist of the content and the fact that two bloggers had died of heart attacks.
“I haven’t died yet,” said Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog. The site has brought in millions in advertising revenue, but there has been a hefty cost. Mr. Arrington says he has gained 30 pounds in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees. “At some point, I’ll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen.”
I’m sure Richtel interviewed a handful of bloggers that laughed at his premise, but like so many journalists he had already drawn his conclusions and all he needed was a few eager suspects confirm it. Look, I’m not usually so negative on this blog, but I’ve grown very tired of the media’s characterization of blogging. There is no question that you can find people who have become so obsessed with something they get paid for that they do it death (See gamers, lawyers, miners, athletes, prostitutes.)
In this case they found a handful of people with no life who are now being paid to have no life. So where’s the story in that?
Focus on real business stories like the alien baby who started a social networking site for, well, other alien babies.
Comments
This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at Apr 07, 08 | 12:11 pm and is filed under Blogging, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
As if there aren’t ten thousand other professions and activities where a few souls had heart attacks? Would this have been a story if it had been about obsessive chauffeurs or bakers?
Hi John,
This article has received so much attention from the social media folks. I think the article completely misses the point, as far as I’m concerned it’s just a piece of linkbait.
J
I’d rather have a well-written informative unique blog than one that is constantly seeking the next scoop. But maybe that’s just me.
Amen. Just the passage you quoted is riddled with holes.
As if gaining weight when you settle into a position that involves a lot of sitting behind a desk is something rare. If he can afford 4 employees why can’t he rent office space somewhere outside his home? Is the “severe sleeping disorder” anything more than “I have trouble sleeping at night because I keep crazy hours, constantly have commotion in my living space, don’t eat right and don’t take care of myself?” And him predicting all those tragic ends doesn’t make them so.
The media will always be looking for angles that get the reading public’s attention… the new, the unusual, the bizarre, the courageous, the outrageous, the pitiful, the enviable… I don’t whether to envy or pity the blogger making millions from a home office! At least he can afford a personal trainer and a therapist.
Sounds like a late April’s Fool. Good thing normal managers never are overworked or have heart attacks…
John I enjoyed your post much more than the original story, at least you know it’s funny. On the other hand, what the heck, we now have NYTimes certification that we’re actually in a death-defying obsessive pursuit. Makes me feel more adventurous just to read about it. You can’t call me a keyboard potato any more! Tim
Tim - you’ve always been edgy and adventurous in my book!
BG - I really think is should have been!
If this were a piece of link bait, it was a good one as it has gotten the twittersphere a-twitting…
“Sounds like a late April’s Fool. Good thing normal managers never are overworked or have heart attacks…”
I agree. What makes bloggers the only ones dying from their job. I believe that blogging can be tedious at times but it was not the only cause of these death’s. It may have just sped up the inevitable. May they rest in peace.
Slate.com has a good piece that picks this article apart and really shows how shoddy the journalism is:
http://www.slate.com/id/2188424/
John,
This article is hilarious. I first read about these people who “blogged” 24/7 on multiple outlets a year or so ago.
The article I read talked about the health problems that were starting to develop and it dealt with someone who had a heart-attack after just 6 months of it.
See some people are great at writing massive amounts of content, others at turning small pieces of content into a very valuable asset that earns money.
I think to be a great “blogger” you need to be in the middle of the two somewhere.
To Higher Profits,
Dave Ryan, Consultant
Bleuh!!
I think that blogging is still largely misunderstood and has yet to quite fit or be fully accepted into the mainstream way of things… Articles like this simply validate blogging as a new and feasible way of making money.
When people don’t understand something they have to over-analyse it. This makes it easier to fit it into their view of things..
A sedentary lifestyle will take its toll on individuals, and some are more prone to showing the effects than others. Blaming blogging for picking up weight is ridiculous, as a lack of exercise and overeating will cause that, rather than repetitive stress from excessive typing on your keyboard.
Keeping a balance is important in everything in life, and this article serves to prove this, yet again.
Have an awesome weekend, everybody!
Its the age of information and you can hide or embrace it. I choose to embrace it. Blogging has taught me more about what I do. Thanks John.
I think the main points of the article are to keep one’s perspective, to “step away from the vehicle” of the always-plugged-in life, and to maintain one’s health and balance.
To me the subject of taking care of one’s health IS one to take seriously - and I’d advise you to, as well - whatever that means for you in terms of maintaining what works, or changing what doesn’t, starting now.
I say that because tomorrow is the three-year anniversary of my brother’s sudden and very unexpected death, probably from a heart attack. He was not a blogger, but a consulting engineer with his own successful consulting practice, so a small business person, as many bloggers are, too.
It is, for us in our family at least, an advisory, a cautionary tale. The whole “stop and smell the roses” bit? It’s real.
(On another note, my husband is a newspaper journalist, so I look at that profession with a different perspective than most).
The real point is to step away from the vehicle of the constantly plugged in life now and then. Really. Get a little fresh air. You’ll thank yourself.