If you don't see any more posts, it's because I just keeled over my laptop, dead
The Times reports bloggers who sit motionless in front of their monitors around the clock are dying in record numbers. Well, two of them died, at any rate. But it's in the Times, so it must be true.
It's great journalism. Let me see if I can apply the formula to another field - journalism itself:
In News World of 24/7 Stress, Reporters Write Till They Drop
SAN FRANCISCO — They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the hour. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: the newsroom.
A shrinking work force of laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a constant stream of news and comment.
Last year, a reporter for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes died of a heart attack after collapsing at an Air Force base. In 2006, a freelance reporter, only 49, collapsed and died from a heart attack. A third reporter suffered a heart attack while in his newsroom, but is expected to survive.
Conclusion: Journalism is a dangerous field! Stay away.
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Could you point me to the
Could you point me to the phrase that says bloggers "are dying in record numbers"? I couldn't find it. The story just said that many bloggers/journalists are working long hours under stress. The deaths were extreme examples.
But if it was on Universal Hub, it must be true....
Touche
Maybe I exaggerated a tad, unlike the Times, which soberly wrote:
Which certainly has no implication that bloggers are dropping because of overwork, as opposed to being out of shape (Om Malik didn't just blog, he also smoked, ate a meat-heavy diet and never exercised).
Count 'em and weep
Well, how about that you wrote record numbers and nothing about percentages. If we had zero before, then two is the new record. Poof, record numbers.
This piece seems to be the corollary to the image of geeks living their their parents' basement and turning the non-color of standard mushrooms from lack of sunlight.
I came closer to death before blogs existed when I tested hardware and software for computer magazines on the side. My wife came at me at 2 a.m. glaring an evil eye as she was roused through two doors, yet again, by the screeching and boinging of modems connecting. That was stress.
ummm....the story also said:
ummm....the story also said:
"To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths."
A new...TREND?
I was surprised that the Globe wasn't covering this, then I realized it didn't include any of the prerequisites for Globe coverage:
- A gentrifying neighborhood
- Dogs
- Cheese-making
- Retiring early and being bored with all of your millions
Perhaps they could find a retired 45 year old millionaire blogging about cheese making from their South End condo which has a dog rental service on site to comment? (Apologies to anyone who may fit this made-up description) I'm sure it would be worthy of the front page, unlike a commuter rail accident or something silly like that.
Good News Bad News
Good news is that someone over on
Morrissey Blvd. actually recognized
gaming the public pension system as
local and newsworthy enough for the
front page yesterday.
Bad news is that they ran it on a, yawn,
Saturday when nobody reads the paper. And
unfortunately, the content beyond the
headline looked like the random text
generator was in full voice.
OMG
I'm so sorry! I've really enjoyed your blog...I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, but who can beat those kinds of odds?
Oh, and I think I speak for all of us when I say that I will continue to expect posts every hour, on the hour until the time comes. Or, you know, else.
Happenstantial Evidence
A whole lot more people drop dead while driving cars than did so in the 1890s.
While "sedentary lifestyle" is a selection factor for bloggers and drivers (on average, not in specific), a much greater number of bloggers will always mean a much greater number of bloggers who drop dead while blogging. Same holds if you replace "bl" with "j". These "trends" are only meaningful if the rate of drop dead is going up - and even then they are only meaningful if age and health status are adjusted when the comparisons are made.
Back Away From the Donut...
If I die of a heart attack, it's going to have to do with more than the 45 minutes a week I spend blogging...
===========================
From the brains behind http://www.bigdumptruck.com
Blogs don't kill people...
It isn't blogging that gives us heart attacks. It's reading the news in order to blog about it.
This somehow reminded me of
This somehow reminded me of this simpsons clip, totally:
http://gawker.com/341807/the-simpsons-announces-the-death-of-print
Dissecting all this
Today (Tuesday, 4/8) in Slate, Timothy Noah has fun with this. He takes the article apart and rips the NYT for how it plays such non-stories.
Closer to home
Mark Baard frets about reporters who blog - surely a double whammy if ever there was one.
Yeah but
What's the death rate for artisanal cheesemakers?
I've so had it with this rat race. I'm moving to Canada to make goat cheese. I can sell my fancy stroller collection for start-up money.