5
Apr

OMG! I’m gonna die

Posted by Steven Hodson in Saturday, April 5th 2008      

Need Coffee -- I have 10 posts to get out I’m sorry but this is some of the stupidest, lamest and idiotic headline grabbing piece of trash that I have seen in a while. It might be a headline one would expect from National Enquirer or even The Globe but to have the New York Times come up with a headline like In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop with the connotation of dropping meaning falling down dead.

To give substance to their article they pick the highest profile bloggers that write for the biggest blog networks out there. These are bloggers who work for million dollar blog networks and are expected to break every story before their competitor from another million dollar blog network does. It isn’t the writing that is the cause of whatever health problems they might have - no -  it is the financial necessity of success of the blog network owners that are the driving force.

For every so-called driven blogger there are thousands who blog just as regularly as these so-called super bloggers. These are bloggers who have a family life, they are bloggers who realize as Doc Searls says "Blogging doesn’t need to be a race. Really."

And it’s not like this super drive to succeed is something that is relegated to just the blogging world. As Frederic at The Last Podcast said:

There are a million other jobs out there where people are on-call 24/7; there is a workaholic in every office; and some people just can’t let go.

It’s not just a blogging problem - it’s about the way we, as a society, look at work. For better or worse, the tech blogging world just reflects that.

Like everything else in this world being a blogger; especially one doing it as a career, you need to understand the simple concept of moderation. Not all of us; very few in fact, are of the super-blogger status ad nor do we want to. While the super bloggers maybe driven to get that next breaking story or the next great headline there is a larger majority taking its time to bring substance to what is being thrown out there by the super bloggers.

Like Matt Craven from the Blog Herald said:

I realize it’s difficult for the New York Times to look past the high-end competitive blogging industry at the rest of us - but they should have. By focusing in on Arrington and Buchanan from Gizmodo, they’re looking at a very small fraction of the industry - and certainly not most of us that make a living through blogging or other online revenue sources.

And this is where the career bloggers have it all over their super blogger and MSM counterparts. We have the comfort and space to be able to add far more to the conversations than just hot headlines and for this we can still earn a good living without the fear of the NYT telling the world we’re dropping like flies.

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    Only humans are dropping dead. We constantly-blogging felines are still managing to sleep 20 hours a day.
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    Why does technology and the internet in general always get this kind of negative attention? Whether it's video game violence, sexual predators or internet addiction. Why does technology always get blamed when these are all related to vices that already existed? These are old issues just being expressed through a new media. When will the day come when people realize these aren't internet or technology problems - they are just problems. When it comes to kids, these are parenting problems. It's not the responsibility of Myspace or other social networks to babysit children. The blogosphere isn't blame for letting blogging consume your life. It's those people's personal choice. One that leaves their lives out of balance which leads to health and personal problems. But again no one's putting a gun to their head while they pound out their latest post.

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