So it’s now official - defined as noted in The New York Times, and linked to by Drudge - blogging has fatalities:
“Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.”
Yes, it’s just moving the “Gawker is sweatshop” meme forward a bit from the Sidney Award-winning essay “Everybody Sucks” by Vanessa Grigoriadis in New York magazine, but adding fatalities is a nice Upton Sinclair add.
For a less apocalyptic view, Eric Alterman catches up in the New Yorker (finally arrived this week…grrr) on how ‘blogging’ has already transformed the MSM, and links it back to an argument between John Dewey and Walter Lippmann. Lippmann’s “the media should be a professional elite” meme won the 20th century, but Dewey’s “news is a conversation” meme is ruling the 21st.
The NYT piece goes on to note that “sleep disorders” are caused by blogging. I do wonder whether this idea has a post hoc ergo propter hoc problem. Do bloggers develop sleep disorders or do people with sleep disorders find it convenient to blog. Certainly being up at 4am gives you opportunity if you’ve got means and motive. I suppose Andrew Sullivan might have a view - is his sleep apnea better or worse since he started hyper-blogging in January and is it relieved now he’s on a break?
If he is, should WordPress and Blogger come with a warning label?
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan picks a good day to return, and reflects on the very piece:
Sphere: Related ContentAnd taking a week off the blog certainly underlined how addictive and compulsive and draining it can be. It’s as much like detox as vacation. You stop blogging and it’s not as if you can start reading books. You just need a rest from all words and arguments for a while. Music helps; walks; dancing; sleeping; movies; beagles: anything but words. And then there’s the regaining of personal space. It’s a queer thing - in the older sense of queer - to rarely have a thought unexpressed, an observation not noted. And it’s not good for the soul. The physical hazards of blogging are nothing compared to the spiritual ones.
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