Is blogging bad for your health?

Ok… I admit it… I grossly underestimated the time required to establish and maintain a blog. By no means did I ever expect it to be easy, but I have found myself a little overawed by the time I’m putting into it (part by necessity and part by addiction). In fact, it got me thinking about the sacrifices we make in order to create and maintain an online presence…

My train of thought was triggered by events that have transpired in Australia over the past 24 hours. Just yesterday, our recently appointed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formerly apologised to the native aboriginees for deeds committed by the Australian government several decades ago. The issue has been aptly named the ‘stolen generation’ and referred to the practice of the government seizing aboriginal children from their parents and raising them in a Caucasian environment. This was a monumental political and cultural event in Australia’s history, made even more prominent by previous Prime Minister John Howard’s outright refusal to apologise to the Aboriginees.

With media saturation of the issue, it would have been somewhat impossible to miss the speech by Rudd (or at least the important sound bites). Yet this is exactly what I did. Instead of watching or reading about the event I was tweaking my blog and befriending others in StumbleUpon and My BlogLog. Now, I am not a cultural ignoramus. Up until the time I started this blog I read the newspaper in detail every day. I have no doubt I would have thoroughly consumed the relevant news last year. But at this point in time, I’m struggling to find the time.

So my question is… is my blogging habit making me culturally insensitive? Is my current tunnel vision making me a more shallow person…?

I often marvel at the time and effort some of the renowned social media power users put into their work. To be a superstar, you really need to be doing all of the following:

1. Maintaining a personal blog and contributing unique and thought provoking articles regularly.
2. Monitoring hundreds of blogs and contributing good stories to sites like Sphinn & Digg.
3. Reading relevant articles and contributing to the conversation via comments whenever possible.
4. Voting and Stumbling good content daily.
5. Developing a large network of like minded associates to support your personal work.
6. Researching ideas for new articles
7. Potentially guest blogging on other prominent industry blogs.

How on earth do social media power users ever have time to earn a living? What sacrifices do they make in order to be a dominant presence on the web…? And does this total commitment to the web make them insensitive in other aspects of life?

I’m not saying that the answer is yes, but I am certainly experiencing the impacts of semi power usage on my own lifestyle. Striking a balance between working full time, co-operating a small online consultancy, running a blog, going to the gym 3 times a week, playing basketball once a week & maintaining meaningful relationships with my girlfriend, family & friends seems nigh on impossible. Something has to give…

To this point it has been personal relationships. My beautiful girlfriend has been often neglected over the past month. If you’ve seen my About Me page I’m sure you’ll agree there would be literally thousands of guys willing to take her off my hands. So on Valentine’s Day I give kudos to her and say I love you for putting up with my neglectful ways. On top of that I’ve barely seen my friends in weeks…

So… if there are any power bloggers out there, please chime in with your thoughts. I need your time management tips before I evolve into a culturally insensitive, single, blogging hermit…

UPDATE (19th February)

Matt Ridout just published a great article outlining the social media habits of 5 power users. It includes references to the amount of time they spend on social media sites each day. Jeff Quipp quoted over 6 hours a day. Whoa! How do you earn a living Jeff…?

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Tagsblogging, blogging frequency, Digg, MyBlogLog, Social media, social news, Sphinn, StumbleUpon, time management