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.”
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.]
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.