Friends, have you seen today's cover story about the perils of blogging in the New York Times Magazine?
It's worth the read, but the Matron could not move beyond the opening lines:
"Back in 2006, when I was 24, my life was cozy and safe. I had just been promoted to associate editor at the publishing house . . . . "
Pushing the ripe old age, of uh, what -- 27 -- Emily Gould has a Times cover story all about the troubles that followed her staggering success as a writer?
Late bloomers R Us, sighs the Matron.
16 comments:
As a geriatric blogger to a youngun, I say take heart and remember Grandma Moses and Maude Lewis.
I thought it was a great article--you should also read the follow-up in Salon's Broadsheet.
I am not familiar with Gawker--and I don't think I want to be--but it sounds like like blogging at a whole 'nother level to me.
Nowhere in there does she ever sound like a happy person to me. I'm just sayin'
Waaah. I would rather be a baby blogger and be happy.
As a blogger, she was definitely on a whole other level. It sounds like (and she admitted) that she was addicted to the attention she received.
I'll admit, I do like the immediacy and the feedback, and even the little bit of attention, but who has time for blogging in the all-consuming way she did it? Fortunately, I have other things going on, kids who expect 3 meals a day and a ride to school. There's self-involved, and then there's self-involved.
I agree with Jenn--she doesn't seem to be happy in any area of her life.
I read that article. The words Pretentious Twit occurred to me. I guess I'm just not a New York person.
In this awful unemployed period of my life, I know I've posted some rather discouraged and depressed posts, but I hope I have more boundaries than this Gawker woman. I just don't understand why someone over the age of 14 would get such a rush from posting her personal life for all to read and comment upon.
it's all about connections.
A 24-year-old not thinking through their actions terribly clearly is NEWS? Um, doesn't anyone remember being 24?
I remember being 24 - I married the biggest idiot in the world! (which I hafta say means, I was the biggest idiot in the world!) Yeah!
I'm still reeling from the news that Dooce makes 40K a month.
If I move to the Bahamas and blog from there, (interesting place and subject matter..) do you think I could make 40K a month???
24....amazed that she has that much life experience to draw from!
I think I remember 2006. It was so long ago though, the details are hazy. I think I got a haircut that year. I may have even blogged about it.
I cannot even connect with the woman in the NYT article. I don't blog for the same reasons she does and, luckily, my experiences have been far more positive overall.
As Jenn points out, Emily doesn't seem like an inherently happy person.
It's a very interesting article--particularly because, subtextually, she still rather wants readers of it to like her, and I can't say we do. But that whole issue that confronts all of us personal bloggers, about consciously shifting boundaries, is a big one. My own feeling about my blog is that I rarely share things that really, truly, madly, deeply matter to me, bother me, upset me. Those things remain mine.
It's stuff like this that make me wonder what the point is of getting out of bed...alas, alack, too late...sigh...
It's interesting. There are so many components to blogging that we don't always expect. It can be perilous. People should know that whatever they blog about can and may be used against them---habits from drinking to smoking to using drugs of any kind will catch up. My friend, a private investigator says that blogs ahve become his best friend.
it makes me sad that i've been blogging since 2002 and i am still a nobody ;-)
seriously, it's a big world. and a big world needs boundaries. and most 24 year olds probably are still working on that concept (i probably was when i was 24.) i'm glad i'm, er, 24+.
I'm a New Yorker and I totally agree that she sounded like a pretentious twit.
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