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.
