Bloggers are dying. The stress is killing them. This doesn't surprise me very much.
Both the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle create the illusion that the world is constantly changing in profound ways, that in-depth coverage of the revolution is readily available, and that anyone so inclined can digest all of it (making them some kind of uber-human info-god).
But profound change doesn't come from a firehose; It comes from the slow evolution of ideas. Attempting to drink from the firehose doesn't afford us the time necessary to digest and meditate on those ideas.
A few years ago I was a TV news junky (mostly politics and business). But anxiety led me to believe that TV was destroying my productivity. I needed to be working (always) and anything that got in the way of work was bad (TV, sleep, socializing, etc.,). So I turned off my TV for a year...
...I worried that I'd feel cut off from the rest of the world. I didn't. Life (in general) just slowed down, and my life (specifically) kept on moving. When the TV came back on nothing had changed. I hadn't missed the revolution. The 24-hour news channels were still filled with gossip, and prime-time TV was still filled with garbage.
A year-and-a-half ago I was an Internet junky. I had a huge blogroll which I read religiously each morning. I stayed on top of the trends and knew what was going on. But my head was spinning, and I was burning out. The world seemed to be moving so fast. Huge paradigm-shifting ideas were being anounced daily, and discussed constantly. So I semi-consciously unplugged for a year...
...Surely I was going to miss something huge. I didn't. Life (in general) just slowed down, and my life (specifically) kept on moving.
Professional-Bloggers and Brand-Polishers aside, is drinking from the firehose a wise investment? Given how much time is spent, are the returns appropriate? Is the ego-boost of becoming an Uber-Human Info-God enough? Is the added stress of trying to keep up going to kill us all prematurely?
I'm starting to plug-in again, but am now more weary about the added toll it takes.