At 530am this morning when I got up to check my RSS feeds, I was faced by this article in the New York Times, decrying the dangers of blogging and using the example of the health impacts recently seen by prominent bloggers. The NYT likened blogging to third world sweat shops creating Nike shoes or Gap tops, only in this case workers sit in illuminated offices with acres of LCD screens in front of them.
I take another viewpoint on this debate, most bloggers aren’t doing it through economic necessity (hey no one has paid me for my average 2-3 posts a day for the past year or so) they do it in an attempt to create a voice, disseminate a message and, I guess, create a pond within which they’ll hopefully grow to be a big fish (excuse the tortured metaphor).
It is true however that online does not equate entirely to the real world. While I do spend a fair amount of time each day in front of a screen, yesterday I interspersed a 2km swim between blogging sessions, took in a networking/economic development functions, talked strategy (face to face no less!) with a friend/business associate and hung out with the kids looking at stuff we collected during our middle east sojourn last year.
So at the end of the day it comes back to balance – blog away people, follow the memes, predict the trends and get in depth with social media – but at the same time head outside sometimes and smell the roses…
Nice
I hear you brother! I’d much rather spend time with my little son than in front of a computer screen. Having said that, my blog is part of my brand around town and writing is an enjoyable creative outlet. It certainly is about finding a balance.
Congrats on the Unlimited article, by the way.
Thanks for that Paul – more coming out next month!