Death by Blogging

Matt Richtel writes in the April 6, 2008 issue of The New York Times that some bloggers forced to meet the demands of the web's endless cycle are literally writing themselves to death, maybe. Certainly the recent deaths of two noted bloggers has raised concerns about the harried nature of our 24/7 lifestyle, but no one knows for sure why Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant died. To Richtel, their passing may reflect a larger phenomenon. Here are some snips:

It is unclear how many people blog for pay, but there are surely several thousand and maybe even tens of thousands.

The emergence of this class of information worker has paralleled the development of the online economy. Publishing has expanded to the Internet, and advertising has followed.

Even at established companies, the Internet has changed the nature of work, allowing people to set up virtual offices and work from anywhere at any time. That flexibility has a downside, in that workers are always a click away from the burdens of the office. For obsessive information workers, that can mean never leaving the house.

Read the entire article: In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop