TIME Magazine published an idiotic article that is yet another in an ongoing, ever present trend that drives me nuts. I call it Get Off My Lawn Syndrome.
Facebook’s “25 Things About Me” meme seems harmless enough; people write 25 facts about themselves and post them on their Facebook pages, just as they do with videos, status updates and photos of last weekend’s party. An estimated 5 million of these notes — that’s 125 million facts — have appeared on the website within the past week. Assuming it takes someone 10 minutes to come up with their list, this recent bout of viral narcissism has sent roughly 800,000 hours of worktime productivity down the drain.
You know, we could make a lot of equally pointless calculations.
- If 10 million people call their spouses just to say hi, with each call being 5 minutes, that’s also about 800,000 hours of “worktime productivity down the drain.”
- If 50 million people spend 1 minute walking to the mailbox everyday rather than checking only once a week, that’s also about 800,000 hours of “worktime productivity down the drain.”
- If 100 million people spend 30 seconds each day scratching their heads, that’s also about 800,000 hours of “worktime productivity down the drain.”
The Social Web gives all of us plenty of things to be annoyed by. So ignore them, don’t tell the rest of us that our enjoyment is stupid. Personally, I love seeing people’s 25 things, and I had a fantastic time writing my own.
Evan
February 17th, 2009 14:09
LOL....they aren't factoring in the business and networking that can be accomplished. But I do tend to relate to employees wasting time and money on too much social networking...
Tim Levad
February 17th, 2009 14:52
Jake, there could not possibly be a better way to describe the disdain that traditional media like Time Inc have for social media than "Get off my lawn syndrome". You sir, win my quote of the day award. Thank you.
Chris Giddens
February 17th, 2009 16:52
I wrote mine at home, so they can take a few minutes off their calculations... Oh and I know other folks who got the internets at home.
desabol
February 18th, 2009 4:39
Jake,
I am definitely with you on this and share Chris's thoughts about where folks access the interwebs from. Why does traditional media always assume that people only use social media/social networking sites at work. Most people, myself included, take time after working hours to do these things on our own time (e.g. after work) so I think it's an unfair generalization. The next thing you know there will be a follow up article on the lost productivity involved with using the restroom during working hours. Just another case of a myopic viewpoint being used to broad-brush a topic without thorough analysis or evaluation of what is being talked about. I wonder how much time was wasted reading the Time magazine article. Furthermore I wonder how much time will be spent commenting on the article. I think Time is just suffering from envy - they want discussion to take place but they want it to revolve around their articles and on their site not anyplace else.
Andromeda
February 26th, 2009 23:26
This reminds me of a joke my husband loves to tell. What happens to that statition who enters a pool of an average depth of 3 feet? He drowns.
Andromeda
February 27th, 2009 1:26
This reminds me of a joke my husband loves to tell. What happens to that statition who enters a pool of an average depth of 3 feet? He drowns.