Slashdot Mirror
Blogging Now Good for You, Still Bad for Some
Several users have alerted us to a May Scientific American article that has been getting some attention more recently. Apparently, blogging is now good for you and, at least in this context, is the suggested reason for the explosion of blogging. This is quite the departure from some of the results we have seen in practice for more prolific bloggers.
Oh yeah, give us even more blags!
I prefer to think of it as, "Blogging good for me, bad for society" -- at least considering what I'd probably write if I had one.
Next week's news: Study finds that blogging causes cancer!
My blog
Keeping a private journal can certainly be helpful. Sharing it with the world seems odd.
UNIX/Linux Consulting
Bloggers who want to blog to maintain a status (i.e. fame, fortune, etc) find blogging stressful. Of course it's stressful, it's become a JOB!
In contrasts, bloggers who do it to vent out their frustration and share a part of their mind with the world, find it fulfilling.
Not quite a discovery if you think of it that way.
No, it's because most bloggers have the mistaken idea that like-minded souls will seek out and read their stuff, think hard about it and then post an insightful response which re-inforces their self-worth. As we all know, most blogs are a write-only medium, if they have any benefit to the writer it's purely cathartic as it lets the writer vent a bit.
> ... have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences,
If that was the case, sales of diaries would be huge. They aren't. People don;'t write for themselves, they write for their (imagined) audience.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Blogging about Eastasia is still considered harmful, unless we're allied with Eurasia. Wait...
Blogs are good for you? What about those people who died in a blog accident, you insensitive clod?
So whining about yourself on your own blog is good for you. But writing about something of interest to others isn't.
Well, it explains the success of Myspace.
"You are not trying. You are whining." Nigel to Andrea, "The Devil Wears Prada".
Researchers also confirm that reading summaries written by ScuttleMonkey lowers your IQ by 30 points.
Blogs increase the status and reputation of the author in a particular field, but probably just as important for the writer it getting an outlet for those annoyance that come along in your work situation or when using a particular OS or tool. Its definitely a great way to feel better about something that is annoying.
Bloggers will develop improved written skills. How many times have you read an email or document from a coworker and thought "wow, this person can't write"?
Blogging improves your efficiency at work because you become a better communicator. Just don't bitch about the boss in your blog (unless it's anonymous).
Camping on quad since 1996.
Getting sick led to me making a complete wreck of my life. I lost many friends, screwed up my education and my planned career as a scientist, lost what had been a good reputation.
For many years I tried to keep my illness a secret, but it was a terrible burden to bear. I finally went public with it in 1997, by writing a page about my manic depressive aspect. Click the link and you'll see that it got slashdotted.
But I had a much harder time facing or admitting to the schizophrenic aspect. I finally went public with that in 2003, in my essay Living with Schizoaffective Disorder. I also published it at Kuro5hin, where each of its three installments was featured on the front page.
It's not real obvious to most readers, but I avoided saying much about my own experience in the section on paranoia. Again it was very hard to face it. But again I finally went public with it in 2006 in My Deepest Fear.
You'll understand why I had a hard time facing it if you read the essay. I was getting ready for an ambulance ride to the nuthouse when I wrote that, but, if you'll pardon my shameless self-promotion, I think it's one of the most vivid accounts of paranoia ever written.
I've written a lot of stuff having to do with mental illness, both my own and that of others. I finally compiled an index to it all. I printed hardcopies of most of it, and the stack of paper was over an inch thick!
Someday I plan to publish a dead-tree book about it. What's holding me back is finding the words to explain what I've learned from it all. I want to help others avoid it, to help others who suffer to get better, and to help their loved ones and caregivers to understand it.
One lesson I have learned though, is that the worst of the stigma against mental illness is the stigma that we mentally ill have against ourselves. Our shame for being sick is the main thing that keeps us sick. It's a disease, and not our choice. It's not something to be ashamed of.
As I write this, I've been employed steadily as a software engineer for over twenty years. For eight of those years I was self-employed as a software consultant. My title at my current job is Principal Software Engineer. I've achieved this success despite all the chaos that all those symptoms put me through.
I point this out because I sometimes get the impression that those who treat the mentally ill don't expect us to ever get better. Yes, it's difficult, and progress is painfully slow - but it is quite possible for anyone to overcome the worst madness and lead a happy, fulfilling life.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
Sadly, the SciAm article is about a research study on expressive writing, not blogging. While the two may share some characteristics in common, they are not the same. How the writer (and SciAm) managed to wrangle this into an article about blogging is beyond me.
Worse, the study had a nearly 50% drop-out rate, meaning a good minority of people didn't have any interest in expressive writing. And with a small N, the results are hardly generalizable.
Shame on SciAm.
More here:
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/06/09/scientific-american-lets-stretch-research-to-make-it-sexy/