A recent New York Times news report drew attention to the fact that bloggers are a population who might not realize that they are vulnerable to stress-related health problems. Pointing to three fatal (or near-fatal) heart problems faced by high-profile bloggers in recent months, the article got accused by many of being sensational. However, when the exaggerations are cleared away, what we're left with is some cold, hard evidence that the growing population of people who make their money from web writing may be engaging in practices that are harmful to their health.
What Causes Bloggers to Stress Out?
Bloggers are compromising their health primarily because of the stress that blogging causes for their lives. There are several different sources of that stress and the levels obviously vary amongst bloggers. However, common complaints from bloggers about the sources of their stress include:
- Financial concerns. Bloggers usually make their money based on the number of people who visit their posts. This can make some months pretty lean which puts the burden of paying bills on the front burner for a blogger's concerns.
- Overwork. Bloggers who want to get the latest scoop - or who need to turn out a whole lot of posts to pay those aforementioned bills - frequently work much longer hours than a writer at an office job would work. In fact, since their work is online and their laptops are almost always with them, some that bloggers never really stop working.
- Family and social stress. The overworking situation frequently leads to problems with relationships because of the fact that the average friend or family member doesn't understand that when the blogger is “messing around on the computer”, he or she is working.
In other words, bloggers are stressed out by the same thing that anyone who works too much is stressed out by. They need to find a balance between work and the rest of life in order to reduce that stress.
Differences in Blogging Stress Levels
Not all bloggers feel stressed out by the work that they do. In fact, some bloggers say that their posts are a relief to them, not a source of stress. So what causes some people to experience stress when writing for the web and others to deal with it seemingly without problems? There are a few major differences between stressed-out bloggers and those who aren't. Some of those differences are:
- Full-time vs. occasional bloggers. People who work at blogging full time get stressed out because they are relying solely on blogging for their income. Part-time or occasional bloggers blog for the joy of writing, not the money, so they aren't as stressed out by the work.
- High-stress topic areas. Some areas of blogging are naturally more stressful than others. People who blog about news, politics and technology developments tend to have high stress levels because they have to be online more frequently than someone who blogs about a non-immediate topic such as blogging itself.
- Self-esteem issues. Bloggers often face comments from people on the web who are, frankly, pretty nasty. Someone who has trouble with self-esteem is more likely to take that to heart and get stressed out than someone who is able to let those comments roll off their backs.
- Passion for the work. A blogger who loves blogging and who also loves the topic she blogs about is going to naturally be less stressed than someone who fell into blogging and doesn't really love it.
Identifying the differences in blogging stress levels may help bloggers to recognize where the problem areas are in this business in order to reduce the stress they experience.
Reducing Blogging Stress
How each individual reduces the stress associated with blogging depends upon the specific cause of their blogging stress. If the problem is overwork, they may reduce blogging stress by hiring help or simply cutting back on hours. If the problem is financial strain, they might take on a part-time job or do additional web writing to relieve the pressure. (For further tips on reducing blogging stress, read this helpful article.) As a basic rule, the goal is to restore the balance between blogging and the rest of life. Everything in moderation, so they say.
