Posted by Jeremy Scott | 0 Comments
Americans Are More Wired Than Ever
I know, I know… duh! Yes, folks, here’s another finalist for Most Obvious Survey Results of the Year award.
Deloitte & Touche has released the findings of a new survey and–drumroll please–people like using cell phones, the internet, and other tech gadgets!! Look at the woman in that picture, she’s using the internet and a cell phone all at the same time!! And even the baby is wired!
Seriously, who is the genius that pitched his bosses on this survey (who then sat back in his cushy corner office for three months playing World of Warcraft)? I mean…. easiest. Job. Ever.
“Hey boss, I want to do a study on hybrid cars. You see… I think people are buying more of them today than they were ten years ago.”
“Were they even making hybrids ten years ago?”
“I doubt it. But the only way to know for sure is to perform this study.”
“Make it so. Here’s a million bucks for having the genius idea.”
Okay, okay. I’m going on and on a bit here. Sorry. I just can’t believe some of these surveys and studies get done–or that someone feels they need to be done.
Apparently, according to this Earth-shattering new report, 38% of Americans are watching TV shows online, 36% use their cell phones as entertainment devices, and 45% are creating their own online content such as a blog or a website. The degree to which Americans are “wired” has jumped 50% since the last incarnation of this survey eight months ago.
What?! They did the same survey eight months ago? Well now I’m absolutely convinced that some lucky guy has the very best job in the world. Just crank out useless surveys with obvious results year round. Whoever that dude is, he’s laughing all the way to the bank.
Did anyone really think that these results would show fewer people watching online TV, using cell phones, or creating websites? That’s what I thought.
Oh well. Thanks for letting me rant.
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Information Overload… Don’t Add to it
It’s fun sending email, isn’t it?
Especially those funny stories or videos where you carbon copy all the names in your contacts list.
Wait… no. That’s wrong. Those are not fun, those are annoying.
Apparently, Basex Inc.–a web analytics firm–agrees with me. They named “information overload” as the number one problem for the coming year of 2008. Seems that workers get disoriented and distracted every time they receive a new email–keeping them off balance and off-task. And people, I guess, just get endless amounts of joy from hitting the “Send” button, so we’re sending more and more email every day. From the article:
“It’s too much information. It’s too many interruptions. It’s too much lost time,” Basex chief analyst Jonathan Spira declared. “It’s always too much of a good thing.”
Hang on a second….I just got the most hilarious email forward that I have to go check out.
(2 hours later)
Still there? Good. Sorry about that. Now where was I?
Man, I guess these Basex folks are right… email can be a distraction. In fact, They estimate that this “information overload” cost employers about $650 Billion in 2006. Yikes! Their advice? Resist the urge to reply immediately to all incoming messages, and tone down the instant messages and use of the “reply to all” feature.
Or at least make sure the folks you’re emailing constantly don’t have a full-time job to be distracted from.
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Medical Myths Debunked–Even Doctors Believed...
The web is on fire wih the news that many pieces of medical advice that doctors have long prescribed have now been debunked by the British Medical Journal.
The only problem I have with this is that I’ve got one group of doctors (the Journal writers) telling me that another group of doctors is wrong. Who am I to believe? It’s like I’m caught in the middle of a tug-of-war. Remember when eggs were bad for you? Then they were good for you again? Yeah….it’s like that. Expect to come back here in six months and see a follow up story that reads “Debunked Medical Myths Now Rebunked.”
Anyway, you know how mother always said that reading in dim lighting would ruin your eyesight? Yeah, not so much. Those warnings about cell phone use in hospitals being so dangerous? Not really. That claim that humans only use 10% of their brains? Nope. The distraught man in the photo has just been told, “You know that thing I told you about needing to drink 8 glasses of water a day? Yeah, turns out I was wrong on that one. Sorry.” You can see why he’s so upset. You’d be mad too if you drank 8 glasses of water a day for 20 years.
Seriously, though, here’s what we learn from all this: whatever we think we know for a fact…is probably wrong, and it’s at least not the certified gospel truth like we think it is. Humanity has a long and well-documented history of realizing we were really WAY off on what we thought we knew. So add these myths to the rest of them, the Earth is flat, the Sun revolves around the Earth, eggs are bad for you, and reading in dim light will make you blind.
Or not. Depends on what day it is.
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Cell Phones are Popular
Here’s another entry in the “Well…duh” category: a new survey finds that consumer cell phone spending has overtaken landline spending.
First, I would have guessed that this had already happened… a few years ago. But apparently the tipping point only just recently was reached. In an age where even middle-schoolers have their own cell phone, this is not a surprise. I cannot think of a single person that I know who does not have a cell phone.
In fact, the only thing keeping landlines in the conversation is dial-up or DSL Internet service–which uses phone lines to connect to the web (and it is, of course, the phone companies that are offering and pushing DSL Internet service).
Mobile phones are, well, mobile. You can receive all your calls without having to sit in the house all day. Cell phones are not only popular, they are more capable. Cell phones can double as mp3 players, GPS devices, web browsers, PDAs, and much more.
For more on this earth-shattering study, go here. And stay tuned for the sequels: “Computer Use Outpaces Typewriter Use,” and “More People Drive Cars to Work Than Ride Bikes.”
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Identity Theft Has Tripled in the Last Year
Identity theft is a growing problem…a rapidly growing problem. As USAToday reports:
“More than 162 million records have been reported lost or stolen in 2007, triple the 49.7 million that went missing in 2006, according to USA TODAY’s analysis of data losses reported over the past two years.”
Wow. That’s… alarming.
So now is as good a time as any to brush up on some basic identity protection tips (actually, it’s way past the time to brush up on this, but if you’ve had a hard time getting motivated, allow this new report to wake you up and help you smell the coffee).
Identity theives operate in a varitey of ways, but one of the most common is also the easiest to guard against: unattended laptops, mail, computer equipment, disks, and flash drives. Apparently, the section of the population most prone to leave their computer lying around unattended are also among the most likely to have their sensitive information on said computer, in easy to find places.
Another problem is employees skirting the rules: the study finds that 35% of empolyees felt compelled to end company rules on internet and email usage just to get their jobs done. So these folks end up emailing things from work to their home or to friends–things they shouldn’t email such as account numbers and passwords.
Phishing is another trend on the rise, where thieves create copycat websites that look and behave just like the real ones. So you think you’re logging into your Yahoo mail account, but you’re really just giving your account information and password to the bad guys. Yahoo and many other online firms have taken steps to help avoid this problem, by having users choose a Site ID Key or unique color scheme, so that users can quickly know they are logging in to the correct place. Unfortunately, millions of users simply don’t take advantage of this technology, further opening themselves up to attack.
While identity theft’s rise has been sharp, the fact remains that the majority of instances of this crime are avoidable with proper planning and precaution.
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