I do try to keep up with some tech news, but this question raised some red flags for me regarding work-life balance. I don't see how it could be relevant to my job. I understand that they are looking for "passionate engineers", but just because I have hobbies that are not tech related outside of work doesn't mean that I am not passionate about what I do. In fact, it raises red flags as to why they are looking for candidates that like to read blogs outside of work. Perhaps it is due to a poor work-life balance culture at work where they expect people to put in extra time because "they love what they do."