Today's piece in the WSJ about Mom blogs and last week's NYT article seems to reflect a growing desire in the mainstream media to portray bloggers as over-stressed bundles of nerves unable to keep pace with the 24-7 nature of the online medium.
Then I remembered - the WSJ and NYT all host several blogs. I hope they're taking care of their own - this blogging stuff sure is hard. Come to think of it, maybe I should ask for a vacation or something.
Yes, there are a group of people who use their blogs to talk with a community, and the community is large and sustainable enough where advertisers and marketers see really significant value in buying some space on that property. And yes, those blogs are written by people who have lives like the rest of us and demands on their time.
But the reality is there are tens of millions of people who are writing blogs. And there are tens of millions more people who participate in an online social network or two. And those people are no more or less stressed than the rest of us. Blogs are conversation tools, and not much more. Heather Armstrong is successful because she's talented and creative and provocative - not because she writes a blog.
2 comments:
WSJ's characterization of most mom blogs as places where women discuss baby's first steps and the perils of finding a preschool is not only incorrect, but insulting, as well.
Let's see, what's the more titillating story?
Blogs and social media offer scores of people ways to reinvent work and their lives, in many cases bringing them closer the friends and family.
Or blogging is stressful, destroys family relationships, will kill you.
Once again, MSM goes for the cheap thrill, the quick hit. Pfooey.
Life can be stressful, whether we write a blog or not. You pays your money and you takes your chances.
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