At the risk of stating the obvious, everybody’s blogging about New York Times reporter Matt Richtel’s story about how the stress of 24-7 blogging is thinning the herd of Internet scribes.
Here’s his evidence:
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.
And here’s the cause:
A growing work force of home-office 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.
And here are the symptoms:
Weight loss or gain, sleep disorders, exhaustion and other maladies born of the nonstop strain of producing for a news and information cycle that is as always-on as the Internet.
Two thoughts:
Public figures who are targets of blogging ire often deride bloggers for the cacophony that online self-publishing creates, not to mention their supposed ignorance of traditional reporting techniques. Maybe they’ve found an answer to their prayers.
