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Charlton Heston (1923-2008) »



Blog Till You Drop: A Deadly Addiction…

April 5th, 2008
By SWARAAJ CHAUHAN, International Columnist


blogging.jpg

I have been a co-blogger at The Moderate Voice for nearly three years now. After alcohol and cigarettes, I found blogging to be highly addictive. I gave up smoking two years ago (one addicition at a time please!!!) and have heavily reduced my intake of alcohol. My wife/mother ensure that I have meals at the right time, and begin to howl in protest when I am at the computer for more than three hours at a stretch.

Thus, I remain a “healthy” blogger because I am under watch at home (and have not much time when I am travelling on professional assignments). A recent NYT story informs us that the bloggers 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.”

The NYT goes on: “They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece — not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop. You may know it by a different name: home. Of course, the bloggers can work elsewhere, and they profess a love of the nonstop action and perhaps the chance to create a global media outlet without a major up-front investment. At the same time, some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly.

“Other bloggers complain of 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.”

More here…

I have never been (alas!) paid for my posts (and hence look for other work avenues for survival), I can understand the compulsions of other bloggers who have to keep hunting for, and then retaining, a position by working 24/7.

To me blogging is a pure joy. I have been a working journalist for most of my life but now find that the mainstream media has undergone a sea change, and those who learnt the professional nuances in the pre-1980 era have little opportunity to contribute. I and Joe Gandelman, editor-in-chief of this blog, began our mainstream journalism career almost at the same time and worked in New Delhi in the early 1970s.

I had almost begun to feel left out three years ago in the absence of a platform to write. By sheer chance I revived contact with Joe in the US. Joe motivated me to get back to writing…and got me out of my “writer’s block”. So in this way blogs can get people out of stress and listlessness. In fact one can make a contribution towards public good too…so long blogging does not become an addicition. And your entire life is not dependent on this activity…

PS: Maybe the governments should insist on warning signs on all blogs (as on cigarette packets) that “blogging for more than two/three hours at a stretch is dangerous for health”.

[For more blog reaction to this story GO HERE.]



This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Freedom of the Press, Internet, Newspapers, Journalism, Blogroll, News, Original Reporting, Media Criticism, Internet News Media, Media, Blogging. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 2 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    hi guys,
    A lot of people are suffering from the alcoholism or from the drug addiction and they do not receive a proper help. It is a real punishment for the relatives and friends of such a person, it is very difficult to stand such people, but if you really love a person who is trapped by the some kind of addiction, do not shout at him or her, do not drive out him or her, because you are the only person who can help. People with the addictions do not need your empathy or sympathy; they need a medical treatment. And the sooner you will apply to the rehabilitation center, the more chances you have to treat your close person. However, you have to understand, that except the common medical treatment, he or she needs a psycho treatment, and if you want to put him or her at the good drug treatment center, you are welcome at cliffsidemalibu.com. This site is representative of Cliffside Malibu Drug Treatment Center, the best center at this sphere. The addiction treatment is based not only at different pills, but also at the heart-to-heart talk with the patients. It is a fact that a person starts to drink or to take drugs mostly for some particular reasons, some sorrows, or troubles, and this center finds out this reason and removes it. So, drug rehab lasts not for a very long time. Help addicted people with Alcohol Treatment! Visit on this site.
    thanq.
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    rarthur
    Addiction treatment and recovery resources for the addict and their families. http://www.addictiontreatment.nethttp://www.addictiontreatment.ne
    • ^
    • v
    Decades ago addiction was a pharmacological term that clearly referred to the use of a tolerance-inducing drug in sufficient quantity as to cause tolerance (the requirement that greater dosages of a given drug be used to produce an identical effect as time passes). With that definition, humans (and indeed all mammals) can become addicted to various drugs quickly. Almost at the same time, a lay definition of addiction developed. This definition referred to individuals who continued to use a given drug despite their own best interest. This latter definition is now thought of as a disease state by the medical community.

    __________________
    http://www.treatmentcenters.org

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