Blogs

Two popular technology bloggers, Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant, have died of heart attacks in the last few months and a third, Om Malik, survived one in December. This has lead the New York Times to ask, is blogging killing us? The answer: maybe. The article dispels any doubt you may have that there is any scientific basis for their inquiry with this sentence, "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." Phew! Then they get down to the gory details: "…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." The practice of paying bloggers for clicks has put a premium on blogging a story first, thus demphasizng the importance of eating, sleeping and exercising. There are "surely several thousand and maybe even tens of thousands" of people who get paid to blog, and it’s safe to say many of those people live in the Bay Area and at least five of them are at Ritual right now. Brian Lam, who edits Gawker blog Gizmodo, is based out of SF and admits that his bloggers pass out at the keyboard, while he pulls all-nighters and equates his job with "getting punched in the face." And here you thought it was all pink bunny slippers and typing in bed.(pic from BBC)-Andy Wright