Blogging Question

Colleen, in her post The Blo Keeper Is In, admits that she miht be addicted to the internet in eneral and bloin in specific.

Many bloers have felt this, yet, I really wish to know the flip side of this....

Have you ever experienced blo fatiue? Is there a cure?

Comments

[J&J's Mom]

Yes, I have to limit myself to 2 hours a day or I'll never leave!!!

[Pearl]

Absolutely. I've had it. Blog fatigue. Computer fatigue. Anything fatigue. Life without variety is exhaustion. Life with continuous excitement and/or distraction is exhaustion. Too much of anything for social, for solitude, for diet, for exercise, for thinking, for feeling, for whatever, and the mind-body is knocked off kilter, irritable, tired "without reason". Solution. Do something else.

[Maura]

Funny you should ask -- I'm going through it right now.

I'm just not as riveted and interested in what's going on in people's blogs, including my own. Usually, I can spend hours reading, commenting and writing, but at the moment, I'm not into it.

I'm thinking of it as my "blog malaise" and accepting that it will end when it ends.

[Jennifer]

Seems to be an awful lot of that going around just now.

The cure? Step away from the computer until the want to do it comes back. If it does.

[colleen]

Just to report in: I didn't forget to eat breakfast this morning while blogging, but I did burn it (progress?), meaning that I boiled my eggs until the water completely evaporated!

[Mimi]

Oh yeah. All the time. Sometimes you just gotta step away from the computer and rejuvenate.

[Garrison Steelle]

Depends ... did you miss me? ;)

-G

[Philip]

The cure is to take a break. Let things breathe, go out and walk through the park, experience life, let things blog-worthy happen to you, until you want it again, need that forum for self-expression.

[Raehan]

Yes. The cure, well it's the same as you'd use for addiction-- limit yourself to a time frame for blogging. Not that I've done that myself.

Is it possible to be addicted to and fatigued from blogging at the same time? Cause you know I have this friend.....

[kenju]

It is definitely possible to be addicted to and also have fatigue from blogging; I am a perfect example. I see developing in me a compulsion to read certain blogs everyday and the problem is that the list of "must reads" is growing daily. It will have to stop soon. My favorites list has sub-categories and folders which are rapidly filling up, plus there is not enough time to do what must be done in life, let alone add to it on a daily basis.

[tommy]

I was actually going to post something about this tomorrow, more along the lines of work/hobby separation and the problems that come along with your hobby becoming your job.

For the bloggers that are writers I can see a problem with working too much. The rest of us just need to make sure we don't turn this hobby into work too.

[Margaret]

I have blog fatigue right now. It feels sometimes that I am living vicariously through other people and not spending enough time actually LIVING.

[wavybrains]

I have both. And this is something I've been thinking about a lot. You've opened a can of worms here. Intermitently, sometimes at the same time even.

I love blogging. I love reading people's blogs. Sometimes though I get burnt out on the pointlessness of it all--do I ever actually get to know anyone this way? Is it even possible? Are these "real" friendships? I lament the fact that I have relatively few real-life friendships, and yet I spend hours as a vicarious observer on others lives. There are times when commenting and reading seems to serve no purpose, and yet there are many times when I am so happy to contribute, to KNOW something about something. I like dispensing advice. I was Lucy from Peanuts in another life. I am addicted to certain blogs, to my bloglines reader, and I can't seem to STOP even when I try too. There are other things I WANT to do with my time, but blogging seems to pull in me in.

But, I also get discouraged too-- I get discouraged because my statisics stay so low, wonder what I am doing wrong, then get really, really mad at myself for being so narcisstic and petty. Many times I feel like I am back at high school--not in the "popular" crowd, looking for a seat at lunch, on the periphery of many cliques, member of none.

I want to be a WRITER, not a blogger, and sometimes blogging doesn't seem to get me any closer to that goal--if anything I feel further away from that at times. I get frustrated because I spend a long time writing great posts--which is wonderful, but it's not the same as writing query letters, finishing my novel, getting my work out there. I worry about using all of my creative energy this way. And yet I love it. On the days when the comments roll in, when I leave good comments, I am a vain comment-whore and I am on a creative high all day.

But lately I've been wondering a lot about my priorities and how much longer I want to do this, why I do this, and if I do want to do this, how to get more of what I want out of this endeavour. And I don't want to make it seem like I'm all about being a blog-whore. I'm not. I'm a wanna-be writer and I want to make that happen. I'm also a very outgoing person, still adjusting to a new city, and I want more deep friendships. And I want to make that happen. And it would be great to combine the two. Because in the end--these ARE the conversations I want to be having.

And I wrote a freaking book. Throw a shoe at me. :)

[Shane]

Blog fatigue - occasionally, usually from spending time looking at consecutive blogs that do nothing for me. However, there are blogs that I can rely on for really good engaging writing - this sorts out the fatigue. I also try to avoid writing ambling long posts that go nowhere.

[kim]

I used to get burnt out a bit, especially when I still worked for Excite on their teen site. My day was pretty much:

Get up, go to work. Work all day in front of the computer. Come home to apartment where you live alone, have no tv, etc. Use comupter all night. Go to bed.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

[melinama]

Might it not be spring? Finally time to not just look out the window but actually go outside and do something?

When the weather gets lousy there's always the computer.

[Suzanne]

you mean like now for instance? -sigh- I think the only cure is to just stop for a while. I've started scrapbooking again instead of surfing and reading,...you know, change of pace.

[elle]

Turn the computer off.

(never)

[Greg]

I think wavybrains said it well. I don't personally feel like blogging is the same as real writing, but that's only me. I read many incredibly well-written blogs, and I think of them as "writing." Somehow your community seems to transcend much of the fatigue side of the equation. Still, I think of blog fatigue as a long-term issue, not merely something that hits once in a while. I used to visit here everyday, but now I only do that at a handful of sites; most I monitor through my RSS reader. That's not the same as active participation.

FWIW, we're doing another fundraiser today for mammograms for low income women. Our goal is $10,000, and we're making good progress. All it takes is a comment. Thanks Michele.

[lani]

I have that ailment frequently. Not only do I bore of reading other blogs, but tire of updating my own. This is probably the reason that I have several blogs scattered all over the internet dating back from 2000. I move a lot. I actually don't like having too many readers, and when I start to get uncomfortable with how many people are reading, I start over. Right now I'm thinking about moving because I don't like seeing so many unknown regular readers in my stats who don't comment. Makes me paranoid.