One thing we all do at TechCrunch: spend a lot of time on various social networks and other websites. But it’s our job, people. We get paid to screw around on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, FriendFeed and about 6,000 other sites all day (quick tip, if you want to try out a service but don’t have a user account, try TechCrunch/Password, there’s a solid chance it will work). But when I’m spending time on these sites I notice that a lot of you are awfully active, too.
Most of you have actual jobs that require you to complete tasks that don’t include uploading pictures to Facebook, updating your Twitter status, or listening to music on iMeem. But from where I sit some of you seem to be little more than social network processing machines. More than a few of you may need a little intervention of your own (if you can’t look away from the CrunchCam, for example, we’re talking about you). So be truthful in our anonymous poll. How many of the symptoms below are you willing to admit to? How much time do you waste every day on the Internet?
* Have mixed feelings of well-being and guilt while at the computer.
* Lose control of time while on the computer; want to quit or cut down, but are unable to.
* Neglect friends, family and/or responsibilities in order to be online.
* Lie to your boss and family about the amount of time spent on the computer and what you do while on it.
* Feel anxious, depressed, or irritable when your computer time is shortened or interrupted.
* Use the computer repeatedly as an outlet when sad, upset, or for sexual gratification.
* Develop problems in school or on the job as a result of the time spent and the type of activities accessed on the computer.
* Have financial problems due to on-line purchases or gambling.
* Become tempted to get involved in relationships with strangers, which may put you at risk for victimization or jeopardize your safety.
Pot calls the kettle what?
yeah but as i said, this is quite literally my job.
Michael-
You are correct to call many of us out for spending far too much time on the Internet. However your premise of making the Internet out to be a form of addiction is simply just incorrect in most instances. The problem that we suffer from has less to do with the net and far more to do with us as workers and an American societal infrastructure of being over worked. In many other countries (see: majority of Europe) workers don’t have to put in 60 hour weeks just to put food on the table or to stay competitive amongst the others in their office. The abundance of time spent on the Internet for many is simply an outlet to do something they enjoy and to stay connected with the world outside their cubicles. If the Internet wasn’t such an available distraction then it would come down to Jim organizing an office-wide Olympics when Michael leaves for a business trip (Hopefully I didn’t lose you with The Office reference). The point is you can remove the stimulus of the Net from people’s lives, but you can’t remove their natural instinct to be playful. It just so happens the www is our best available option.
@zrdavis
zrdavis.com
Shorter zrdavis:
blah blah blah [big word used unnecessarily] blah blah
Work for the Internet industry myself..I voted for the maximum there!
Interesting that you say a lot of workers need to put in 60 hours a week just to put food on the table; perhaps if the majority of people weren’t wasting 1 – 5 hours a day wandering the Net the requirement for 60 hour work-weeks would drop?
I agree with Zrdavis! India has the same ‘live to work’ kinda culture
Do you really think you are the only one with a job that requires you to be on the Internet? The people alone who make the software that your blog runs on, or the people behind every ad on your site, or that annoying “locator” guy… come on, man.
Plus, all the “pro-bloggers” and “social media experts”… what a joke.
yep! we all have a job to do. people see work in different ways.
work= slavery
work= human sacrifice
work= survival
work= financial freedom
work= a hobby
HobbyLocator.com – hire yourself
For you, work = spam.
SpamLocator.com – locate bullshite spammer bots.
You’ve already made millions off techcrunch alone. Sell the damn thing, crack open a bud light and relax man, no need to work anymore. just retire
Sorry, but this post feels holier-than-thou. As if you are NOT wasting your time on the internet Mikey BABY c’mon! You are no better than Scoble (well not that bad.)
“Most of you have actual jobs.” That may be true, but what about me? And the other 10 successful people that read this blog.
Bottom line is, just because these people have tasks that are assigned to them by their bosses doesn’t mean they are wasting their time on the internet as we are. Since we actually have nothing to do, they may actually learn something and start their own business. Thus contradicting your article. I would say people who have jobs are wasting their time AT THEIR JOBS. Not the other way around. Get my logic?
preach on brutha… most of the stuff at regular jobs can be done in a cpl hours – but b/c peeps have to be in the office for 8hrs, they spread their 2hrs of work into 8hrs.
“most of the stuff at regular jobs can be done in a cpl hours”
awesome.
Man I was perusing Twitter and totally found this awesome image of Michael Arrington riding a segway and wearing a sombrero:
http://img40.im...g&via=tfrog
Was this a waste of my time? Yes. Worth it? Yes.
Man, I never noticed how much Arrington looks like the kid from Arrested Development (Michael Cera).
Micheal FAN BOY
most of you are saying 1-5 hours. most of you are liars.
You should of broken it down…
0-59 minutes
1-2 hours
3-4 hours
5-6 hours
7-8 hours
all dam day….
My day would certainly be more productive without the TechCrunch network.
Can you please shut down.
Well, the question asked how much time we “waste“, not how much time we spend, on the web.
Not to hijack the thread or something, i’ll take this off-topic post as an opportunity to assert that the Facebook posts prove that I’m not paranoid after all.
Woohoo!
On-demand paranoia
Well, I am a research analyst! I said 10-15
What’s wrong with 4-5 hours of internet time? Seems perfect for my interacting with folks.
Most of my pc time is spent reading then writing/editing/editing/editing. Occasionally a fun jaunt to podcasting with some friends.
Then there’s exercise, spending time with my lovely companion, netflix, going out with friends, … and part time work so I can still eat.
I’ll take any of that “writing/editing/editing/editing” work you have too much of. Lay it on me, baby.
Define waste time, i’d say about an hour or 2 of my time is “wasted”, the rest is actually work, I run a am the co-founder of a startup, my job is keep the community happy, research other products, work on new product all on the web.
The one on the right is me
Best post you’ve written in a while.
Your article speaks about time wasted on the internet at work, but the poll merely asks how much time wasted per day. Frankly it’s partly my job (and I spend about an hour on that aspect some days) and probably a couple more outside of work hours. Don’t draw the wrong conclusions here.
cool. like me, you are apparently paid to waste time on the internet.
A part of my job, but not all of it
The www isn’t even remotely part of my job…and I literally use every waking hour for it.
And networking sites like Twitter where everybody has such interesting links and sites to share is only expanding my obsession.
I literally feel elements of addiction to my net usage, where I become antsy if I haven’t been online in a coupla hours.
And literally the *only* way to stop me wasting work hours online would be to block the internet entirely anywhere I worked.
Agreed totally. Part of my job is to know exactly what is going on every one the internet at all times. A bit impossible, but I try.
I would agree with NickW. Wasted means would not be paid to do what you’re doing. Some people waste time while being paid to do another job. Then there’s also looking at it in terms of being productive. It’s possible to be productive without being paid.
I don’t work. I operated a social network for 3 years and even when I did that, I monitored it while perusing the rest of the internet at the same time. Now I just peruse the internet until the next idea hits me. So unless I actually have somewhere to be on any given day i waste most of it online. Definitely a 10-15er on most days
Facebook and twitter should start charging by the hour/post. Would monetize their respective services real quick
Rescuetime puts me at 90-100 hours a week on Safari. Although I see probably half of that as working on my own site, it’s still excessive.
I’m pretty sure a lot of you just do a loop between twitter-facebook-youtube-friendfeed and then start all over again.
lol, see below comment
loop = twitter, facebook, email, techmeme, ego-search for me.
That’s a waste of time. Just have it all come into friendfeed and be done with it! Well, OK, I am fooling around with Facebook tonight.
Yes!
I’ve been using FF more now that FB is essentially a stream of living social quizzes and noise having no value add.
FF seems to have more in depth conversatations relevant to _me_
My $0.02…
This is why I became a pro blogger
Also, this pic might be well suited to the post http://is.gd/zX04
its sure does
Trust me, I’d *like* to be working! In the interim, Twitter appears to be a great place to provide pro bono info sec tips.
Besides, TechCrunch gives me a giggle. You’re part of our addiction
That looks like an infinite loop without any terminating condition? Anyone who gets into such loop will be trapped and hard to get out.
im saving this img and posting on to myspace photos. DMCA me if u must
HAHAHA. This is funny, yet both tragic and true.
HELP
heh – i guess i can “work” as much as you do, and still work on my real job. interesting…
hi, my name is Russell, and i’m an Interweb-a-holic.
Mike, does iPhone usage count? That is how I am able to access most of the social web (plus blogs) via iPhone.
If not, then you can’t call me a liar.
Being paid to play around on the internet is pretty awesome. It’s not as awesome when it’s your job 12-14hrs a day and you are on salary. Wah wahh. I guess it all evens out in the wash somehow.
it sure does. and the way it’s washing out is that businesses that pay salaries are massively subsidizing the cost of content creation on social networks. more in my follow up post.
I never thought of it like that. brilliant.
Please use this image in your follow-up post:
http://img40.im...p?image=sqx.jpg
So many Photoshop opportunities for that t-shirt!
Work? Of course. Isn’t everyone who reads TC or on Twitter a social media consultant?
disagree.
Kettle calls foul before reading the article, what?
>.> I’m not online when I’m sleeping or in the shower. I will happily admit here for the world [wide web] to see that I have a life and it’s completely on the internet. Even if I do go out somewhere, I usually have my BB storm in front of my face.
Personally, it’s part analysis and keeping up with trends (for my site), part interest – I’m a fan of the internet.
And it ebbs and flows inversely with the amount of programming that needs to get done.
I voted 1-5 hours. It maxes at about 2.
My company encourages people to be on social networks at work. From my standpoint it’s part of everyone’s job to be in tune w/ where technology is headed.
That said, we gotta make $$$ so I hope they all answer “less than 1 hour!”
i am a loser so all day
I don’t *waste* (”to consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit; squander”) time, I *spend* time on the internet
If the definition of “waste” is to “spend,” don’t let me point out the obvious synonym.
def of “waste” is to “spend.. without adequate return” I get adequate return
wait, so what do u mean by using TechCrunch/Password to try out a service? what service r u specifically talking about? :S
Honestly, I’d like to see the Internet shut down at work. Perhaps I’m a closet Luddite.
Last night I saw “Waiting for Godot,” a minimalist play with many interpretations. Halfway through I thought, damn, this play is about diddling your life away on the Internet! That Beckett was a genius.
From the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep I am connected to “the machine”. I say it is my job, but its because of my habit that gave me the skills to hold positions that require me to be connected constantly.
I like how you purposely leave MySpace off of the list. Bias much?
I don’t think he “purposely” left MySpace off. The only people talking about MySpace are the people talking about how it’s not doing good. And they’re talking about it on Facebook or Twitter.
When it’s time to go to sleep here in Europe.. it’s wakey wakey time in the US…
There’s so much to read on the interwebs…
Bad poll – not fine grained enough (1-5 hours?) and doesn’t account for the fact that someone like me spends most of the time on social networks in the evenings after a full day’s work.
Plus, out of my time in the evenings on the internet, about half is on reading articles and entering into technical discussions – and the other half is on social networks or other diversions – so not exactly “wasted” time.
However, I can pretty much vouch from direct observation, that some people spend a lot of their time on social networks during the time they are actually being paid to work.
Of course, while you’re viewing the activity of people on social networks, what you’re not really seeing is the inactivity of people who are registered and not there – so you’re going to get a very skewed view of reality.
I wonder how much of this economic downfall can be contributed to unproductive myfacespacetwatbook abusers who spend 60%+ of their normal work days doing nothing but making you social network overlords earn more money.
I know it’s nice to break the monotony from time to time, but that can become a counter-productive ritualistic distraction.
lol, when i graduated college and didn’t have a job for some time, there were definitely some 10 hour days of internet tomfooleries…
The internet has almost become my life. It’s kind of scary sometimes. I feel that if I step away, I might miss something.
Does my job as a web developer count or what about the branding done while on twitter or linked in? It’s hard to measure ROI by simply stating how much time I spend online.
I am home-based, so I am my own boss. Freelance development plus consulting. I check TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb and O’Reilly Radar blogs regularly (even different times of the day). I check out 2 local political blogs on a daily basis. I spend at least 2 hours daily on research on the internet. I check the usual technical journals that are of interest to me such as those from, ACM, IEEE, SIAM, Elsevier, Spinger and others. If I find something abstracts interesting, then I see if I can track the authors email contacts to request free copies of their papers. If I can’t find their info via Googling, then I go to my local university library and dig for the journal and photocopy the whole article if the journal is available.
So, I spend time on 3 tech blogs and 2 political blogs plus doing research on the internet.
“Waste” on the internet? less than an hour a day. I am online most of the day, reading work emails while I thumb through Twitter, Viigo, Facebook, MySpace, texting and emailing friends . . . and playing chess at redhotpawn, but I CAN do that. it’s not wasted time since I’m nurturing relationships and getting ideas/news/distraction/stress relief. . . . . as a matter of fact, I should be getting paid for this
im lucky i don’t have to worry about it since my job is mostly online.
I remember the yahoo CEO saying that as people grow older they will spend fewer time on social networks because they will develop a life, which will require certain time obligations for a significant other, career, kids, etc.
They won’t have time checking all their friends profiles, taking pictures to upload, sending virtual gifts, etc.
That is why most of the users on the sites are young people who have time or older people who have no life.
If there is a person over the age of 27 who is really active in social networking or other such sites, he may be a loser.
You know it is funny you would mention workers spending too much time on twitter and social media. The same could be said for techcrunch staff. Has your mission gone sideways without you realizing it? It seems that way to me. People are tiring of twittered to death, if not twittered, facebooked. Now after today’s headlines I am very serious about not reading techcrunch anymore. You all spend too much on twitter and social media.
Someone tell me social media is not going to have a GIANT crash as big as the dotcom, or larger. Boom, one day it will all be over.
I clicked on this “symptoms” link at work. Please let people know that you are taking them to an inappropriate site. Surely you know this…
gr8 post. finally someone noticed how we spend (definitely not waste) time on all these social networks. when i was in marketing it helped more than hurt. just started a new job in finance…so still trying to figure out how i can use all these services to benefit the most. and as for the personal/social aspect..it does ‘hurt’ productivity a bit…but i think it boosts morale (and such other organizational values) in the long run to cancel out the loss of productivity. at the end of the day i wud stay an xtra 2 hrs in the office finishing all assignments if i have spent some time on facebook/twitter/ff etc.
It’s simple. Most of these are layoff people. Others are the reasons why this country is falling off the face of the earth. Spending all these times blogging, posting craps on the Internet does not contribute to the US GDP.
I spend very little. I have to go to work in the morning. I only got 1 day cut for work share, and I spend my other free time setting up my partners, investors and I’s CDN and mobile software.
The only job I can see most of these people having is day trader, and I can’t imagine how much money they would have lost by keeping their eyes off the market and on this crap.
Woops, missed a trigger!! I’ll see that money again!
I’m a computer nerd and I’m okay,
Surf porn all night,
And code all day.
You should probably drink excessively too to clinch the triple crown.
BTW, This John Adams movie is pretty great, you may want to watch it instead of porn.
http://www.tudo...ew/_lpUuwc3VS4/
This is why the US is so great, and Canada sucks so very badly.
Had Americans not poured hot tar on our enemies, then feathered them in front of their own troops, who were taxing us unfairly with a GST and unreasonable duties, we would be as bad off and pathetic as our neighbors to the north.
This is why they can’t have online car pooling. Because they lacked the guts when the time came to act and they still do today. Have fun with your $8 a gallon gas and $5 generic sandwich bread loaves dummies.
They tar the dumb Brits @ 50:00 minutes in if you wanna skip to that part.
I hear that. I’ve had to cut down on my rss reading and friendfeed time lately because I’ve been busy with work and commitments to people.
I like to think I’m working to but I don’t think I’m very productive.
Whoa, whoa, whoa – what portion of your audience do you really feel is any different then you? Is it not our duty and responsibilities to be on the ‘cutting edge’ of social media technology?
I’d be pleasantly surprised if less then 30%-40% of the core audience here doesn’t derive some form of income from interacting with the same forms of available internet media that you write about everyday.
If we don’t understand it, how can we utilize it?
There is a need to weave the social network into every day life, may be corporate or home. It is only then that we will not be so awed by it. When Internet came, it was taken as a hugh time loss. Things stabilized. Then Social Networks happened. Get that social in the business and then we have it like electricity and music.
Ya I’ll fess up, its about 10 hours per day at least. Lots of that time is spent on various social nets, but like Mike this is almost literally my job.
A lot of my sites are trends based, so these services are usually the best way to find new content. They might even be good for promoting such content.
lol Thanks for the tip!
I’m in the SEO stage, of marketing my web service, so probably 10 hours or over, on forums and other social media. And unlike coding where you can see results at the end of the day. You can’t see the results at first, and just have to hope that google picks up some of those comment links, (won’t happen here, TC is nofollow). Some people are actually paid just to post links on forums, and its like work to me, except less productive.
Turn On, Boot up, Jack In