Feel Bad For Bloggers!

This article about the woes of blogging is overstated. I really doubt that bloggers are under any more pressure than any small business owner -- less, really, when you consider the hours most spend in commuting (and showering, grooming, and dressing) are right out the window and thus free time most don't enjoy.

I wouldn't link a dopey inside-baseball self-serving piece like this, but sometime earlier this week I just got burnt out, again. So it's kismet. It comes and goes. At some point the prospect of writing the six billionth post on Guess that Party! or even the three-thousandth on global warming just loses all luster.

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.

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.

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.

...

“I haven’t died yet,” said Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog. The site has brought in millions in advertising revenue, but there has been a hefty cost. Mr. Arrington says he has gained 30 pounds in the last three years, developed a severe sleeping disorder and turned his home into an office for him and four employees. “At some point, I’ll have a nervous breakdown and be admitted to the hospital, or something else will happen.”

“This is not sustainable,” he said.

Eh. That's what crystal meth is for.

And Democratic whore scandals.

posted by Ace at 01:14 PM

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