Are you a Blogging Addict?

A couple was holidaying in Florida to celebrate their first anniversary of marriage. One morning the wife saw the husband wake up and go to the toilet. To the wife’s amusement, he stayed there for a very long time. As time passed, the wife became suspicious, as there was no sound of running water or the husband singing a bathroom hit. As she knocked the door and opened it, she found him sitting on the pot with the laptop stuck on his lap. He was blogging over a wireless link.

Blogging has become the new way of livelihood for many and fun for the idle ones. But there are also people for whom blogging has turned into an obsession instead of being a harmless hobby.

Given below are some real facts that can help you see the real picture and also to justify if you are actually a blogging addict.

• You want to blog about every minute of your life, even if it’s just about doing your daily chores.
• If your Internet gets disconnected even for a minute, you become anxious and worried. You start throwing tantrums and blame every single official who is responsible for the downtime.
• You take the comments on your blog far too seriously and irrationally.
• You feel good and relaxed about the recent article that you posted, but the feeling melts away quite fast as the time for the next article approaches.
• The more you write, the more connected and light you feel about opening up your personal life to your readers. The feeling of ‘I am somebody’ spreads over your mind overpowering you of all your real life aspects and bounties.
• You give more priority to your laptop than your girlfriend.
• You want isolation from the world so that you can be with your computer and blog. Noise annoys you just too much.
• People around you and your family complain that you don’t give them enough time; they say you have changed dramatically.

If the answer to all the above is yes, you have a problem far more serious than any virus sitting in your computer. You are a blogging addict. Addiction of blogging can not only take toll on your health and real world relationships, but it can also trickle down to your state of well-being and psychological order.

The most common and serious health problems faced by a blogging addict are given below. These are the result of sitting in front of the computer for more than eight hours and staring at the screen without batting an eyelid.

• The initial health problems include exhaustion, irritability, headaches, aggression, loss of concentration and weak retention power.
• Eye Problems: The glare and high definition of your computer screen is detrimental to the retina and iris of your eyes. The sudden changes in light absorption and constant exposure to bright light cause your eyes to get tired and can develop into serious eye disorders in the later life.
• Obesity: Excessive sitting on the computer can lead to increased body fat and also disturbs your natural body clock.
• Muscular Strain: The strain on your neck and vertebrae results in long term pain and inflammation of the back and neck. This might even develop into permanent disorders with bones and muscles losing their original strength and shape.

If you do not pay heed, all these problems can take you to a bedridden state in your later life and definitely affect your personal and social life. Here are some tips that you can follow for healthy blogging-

• Limit your blog entries strictly.
• Ask one of your friends or family members to keep an eye on you until you are no longer an addict.
• Take a break from the computer and wash your eyes periodically.
• Exercise regularly for 30-45 minutes a day.
• Stretch you body after every two hours of continuous sitting.
• Eat at proper intervals and follow a routine of ‘Breakfast like a king in morning and dinner like a beggar’. This will keep your energies flowing during your work schedule.
• Sleep well. Do not compromise on sleep for any reason.
• Make sure to spend time with your friends and family.
• Get yourself a pet or a good book to increase your offline time.

Blogging is fun, only when it is filled with good content that has been written by a healthy and happy blogger. Don’t let blogging take over your life, because you only live once. The need to ‘be somebody’ is prevalent in all humans but that should not let you compromise with your health and everything else that is good in your life. Your spiritual, social, emotional and personal well-being is the real ‘YOU’ in the right context and this defines you more beautifully than a blog.