Even the most influential bloggers must abandon their posts behind those computer screens at some point.
Andrew Sullivan, a renowned political writer and one of the first to truly embrace blogging, announced Wednesday that he will be retiring his popular blog The Dish sometime in the near future. While this news came as a shock to much of his loyal following — he has shared his thoughts with his readers almost daily for 15 years — he made clear his reasons for the change in his heartfelt announcement, which was (of course) given via his final blog post on the site.
“There comes a time when you have to move on to new things, shake your world up, or recognize before you crash that burn-out does happen,” wrote Sullivan. “I am saturated in digital life and I want to return to the actual world again. I’m a human being before I am a writer; and a writer before I am a blogger.”
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Sullivan isn’t the only prominent blogger to unplug from his job in search of a little digital detox. Politics blogger David Roberts decided to leave Grist.com for a full year after his constant connection with the online world threatened his real existence outside of it. Taking time away allowed him to not only restore his personal health but strike a necessary balance between reality and its virtual counterpart, a task that proves increasingly difficult to accomplish today.
He may be taking a hiatus from his online post, but Andrew Sullivan will undoubtedly remain a writer. In his sign-off, he told readers that once he tends to his health and reestablishes balance in his life, they will see his byline again… maybe even in print.
