Le Blogging Stress, 1 (Laurent G.)

Photo, left, from post André Zucca, Reporter Photographe, (1897-1973), French photographer during WWII, on the blog Embruns, by Laurent Gloaguen.

Donna translated out of French selections of this funny/serious entry about blogging stress, from Embruns (click on link above), one of the most-read blogs in France, .

N.b. Guillemette Faure is a French blogger who writes about the stress of blogging. The embruns piece below seems to be part of a conversation between her and Laurent Embruns on their blogs.

The Stress of the Blogger

Yes, yes, blogging can be stressful, sometimes even very stressful!

There are external causes, mainly the comments, whether it’s the number of them or their quality. You have to have a tough skin to put up with certain galling and even really hateful comments. Reactions from the commentators can go really far, even including death threats. I’ve had the experience myself. That can ruin your sleep a little, and I’m not talking about the notes from threatening lawyers…

There’s also this sort of state-of-emergency that descends when you collapse under the comments that follow an entry. To sum it up, psychologically speaking, blogging can be tough.

There are also internal causes, where you stress yourself out – for example, heavens, someone says something stupid on the Internet, I must react immediately! Or when you don’t want to miss the breaking news, you want to be the first to talk about something, etc. And let’s not forget the agony when you can’t find anything to blog about, you’re not inspired.

And the emails, the twits, the entire technological environment that encourages you to over-activity and distraction. Intense blogging encourages compulsive behavior, outrageous procrastination and supports a state of permanent stress. Definitely discouraged for those with a fragile constitution!

I’m convinced that my depression of two years ago was mainly due to blogging. To say that blogging kills is maybe a bit exaggerated, but it can certainly contribute.

Guillemette Faure, however, knows of other boggers who claim, either to look good or because they’re sincere about it, that they aren’t the least bit stressed. All the better for them. It’s true that blogging with herbal teas must be less demanding.

Sometimes I write an entry late at night, when I’ve come home from a long night out. I unwind, I weigh everything that I’ve accumulated (experienced) during the day; it’s a catharsis. The next morning, I sit nervously in front of my screen and I discover with dismay what I’ve written the night before. Sometimes I leave the entry as it is, even though I no longer agree with myself. Other times, overcome with shame, I delete the entry.

--- Laurent Gloaguen

[Donna wrote to point out that the French photographer André Zucca, one of whose photos I featured two post below, worked for a German-run newspaper (Signal) in occupied France during WWII.
She says the Germans provided Zucca with color film, which was still new then, for his fancy Leica camera.
It makes the photos a bit creepy, since he wasn’t taking them as a completely free agent.
The photographs that le Capitaine is posting on Embruns are part of a larger series (?) he’s doing about the occupation and French collaboration during the war.

And Fresca replies: that's what I get for never going on with French after high school--I missed all that, since Embruns is all in French.

DONNA: Okay, so I went back and doublechecked my facts: the German-run newspaper in France during the occupation was called "Signal" (not Le Journal), and though it doesn't actually say where Zucca got his camera, it does say that he got the rare color film from his German employers.]