Blogalgia : 3 Examples Of A Growing Problem

Blogalgia is a type of pygalgia. While pygalgia (pyg=rump, algia=pain) definitely means “pain in the butt”, there is considerable debate about whether blogalgia should be taken to be any combination of “pain” and “blog”. For the sake of generality, “blog” here includes any channel of chatter and social networking using information and communication technology (ICT). It should be emphasized here that the “pain” relates to that experienced at a personal and psychological level and does not include the distress caused by virulent attacks involving identity theft, virtual bullying and hate-mongering.

In the last decade, the rapid growth of various channels of chatter via ICT has been mostly viewed through rosy, though myopic, lenses. Business and charity organizations, and even governments, have realized its immense scope. What began as a means for virtual bonhomie has evolved into the proverbial Trojan horse – even ardent fans raise the question “It feels good but what lies within?”

It is widely believed that the immense growth is a result of the desire for social equality. The hoi polloi is able to “follow” and communicate with the high and mighty or, at least, the hoity-toity. For the first time in the history of mankind: anyone can voice an opinion which, in principle, everyone anywhere could hear immediately.

Unfortunately, this seemingly benign desire for social equality is the root cause for blogalgia. In this note, three examples or symptoms are briefly described and readers are advised to contemplate on the same and take necessary remedial actions, if necessary.

(1) There are numerous articles with the to-do list on how to get “visits” that spans a network. Some of the basic steps are:
• have an adequate number of friends (a theory even says that there is a unique critical number);
• comment frequently on friends’ posts;
• post at an optimal time.
When one still faces nearly-zero viewers despite all such attempts, one rapidly decline into a severe depression and decides to obliterate oneself from the virtual world unable to bear the pain due to the lack of success. It is even worse for that individual who realizes that his friends or “followers” are there not based on conviction, philosophy or any meaningful attachment. Most are there for the same reason as serial “comment”ers, as described below.

(2) Serial “comment”ers are those who comment on everything and refuse to stop even when their comment is not acknowledged. They attempt to ride along and the prize that they seek is a visit to their own site (in the virtual world, Andy Warhol’s expression should be “everyone will be famous for three seconds”). Strangely, they are immune to any rebuke and it is those who receive their comments who suffer from migraine, disillusionment and a total loss of words.

(3) When successful traits in these networks are carried over to other spheres, there is usually painful chaos and havoc in the non-virtual reality of personal and professional relationships. One of the root causes is the inability to write, speak or think a well thought out grammatically correct sentence without emoticons whose substance requires an attention span of more than three seconds. A colleague or a spouse is usually not satisfied with byte-sized efforts or a comment but usually requires an attempt to converse, preferably face-to-face. Even the judicial system is beginning to wonder if the rising number of divorce cases can be attributed to such virtual causes.

The three examples respectively show that blogalgia could be pain suffered by an individual, a network and even an external non-virtual network. A healthy discussion of such and similar symptoms is highly recommended.