The ShenBot

I, like most people in the tech blogosphere, could not ignore the New York Times piece about the trials and tribulations of blogging and today’s bloggers. It’s actually a pretty dramatic piece … who knew blogging was so, well, dramatic. A good amount of the article is how two “among them” died recently from what will never, ever be proven as blogging related stress induced heart problems. A third, the well-known Om Malik, suffered a heart attack last December.

Ok – first of all – yes, the two men who died were young (50 and 60) and Om Malik is 45. And yes, they are all bloggers and coincidentally all had heart conditions. Now, I don’t want to take away from the drama of the article, but … isn’t there a chance that maybe … just maybe … the fact that these three men share a profession and had heart disease is a coincidence? According to my good friend Wikipedia, “as of 2007, [heart disease] is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, killing one person every 34 seconds in the United States alone.”

But, let’s say that these men did in fact get heart disease/failure as a direct result of their blogging lifestyle. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch fame describes how his blogging life has caused him to gain 30 pounds in the last three years, develop a sleeping condition and lose all sense of home as it now doubles as an office for him and a few other people. Here’s the thing – I get that blogging has officially arrived as a legitimate source of news and information … I also get that the level of competition is exponetially tougher than traditional print as anyone can have a blog about anything and scoop anyone. BUT … the kind of “dedication” these guys are describing is a little obsessive compulsive if you ask me.

Why? Well, a lot of it may have to do with how bloggers are paid. I didn’t realize a lot of them get paid per click or per piece (vs. a weekly or hourly rate). Some, like Arrington, seem to be driven also by the fear of missing out on the big breaking story … either for pride reasons or because you want to get all the clicks from being the first one to scoop a new story. This really started to resonate in me, because it’s something I’ve personally struggled with as it pertains to this space … it feels like there is no shame in admitting that a good percentage of this industry is driven by quantity not quality … clicks more than content. I get hundreds of feeds delivered into my netvibes universe everyday and a lot of it is pure dreck. Is most of what we’re getting fed to us spam so that the bloggers can just earn more money? I don’t know … but they obsessiveness of the industry does not make my heart bleed for those of the blogging community who do not carve out time to go to the gym, sleep … hello … they work from home … can you not take some time out to make a somewhat healthy meal?

I’m not as annoyed at the reality of the money grubbing blogging world – all industry is that way at the core. But why in the hayl does the NYT think this is some sort of breaking trend? The most hilarious part about this for me is how the blogging community itself reacted … most, I believe, thought the thinly veiled threat of blogging death was a little ridiculous. Marc Andreesen went on a particularly entertaining rant. Although there is definitely a permanent place for bloggers in this new world of the Web and the Net, it is hard for me to understand how the stress of bloggers outweighs the stress of traditional journalists – now or ever. Think about Woodward and Bernstein … they essentially brought down the executive branch of the government without any of the facility of our current technology … and you don’t see them talking about how challenging it was about gaining 30 pounds and developing a sleeping condition. I was a blogger in my former life and have friends who are bloggers … yes, I know they stress about being the one to break the story because of all the competition … but they are also really good at keeping life in perspective and not chaining themselves to their computers at all times.

I’m just sick of the sensationalism and the pity me stories. This was truly a ranting week.