Blogitis: a new disease?

Here you are, reading a blog. You're staying up to date with the latest news on fitness, health, food and nutrition. Maybe you also read other blogs to check up on current events, or celebrity gossip, or sports -- but does that mean you're addicted?

You might have blogitis, which, at least according to one public relations speaker, is a real disease.

Richard Weiner, a public relations consultant in Miami Beach, is giving a presentation on the topic at an upcoming conference in Boston. His opinion is that gossip is essential to business. It fuels the stock market, can change an election, or break a new product. In the workplace it's a beneficial tool for bonding amongst employees.

And, because the main source of gossip is blogs, people have become addicted to them.

Granted, Weiner isn't a doctor, and by the sounds of it, his position is that blogitis -- if it exists -- is a positive addition. While I understand Weiner's argument, I'm not sure I agree. I was already skeptical about email addiction and Internet addiction, so I think blog addiction seems equally as unlikely.