Social Media: Where Are We Finding the Time?

It’s quite simple as to “where” we find the time. I wish I could claim I found that answer, but I can’t. With all the research we do into Social Media, I get asked this question a lot by agencies and clients alike.

In America alone, over 2 Billion hours of television are watched each year. Or about 2,000 hours per person…which translates into the fact we watch adverts all weekend on the telly.

All we’re doing is adjusting our free time. In Canada, StatsCan research has shown 64% of Canadians watch TV and are online at the same time. That was two years ago.

If we’re watching 2K+ hours of telly a year, then all we’re doing is re-aligning our time. And telly is a one-way medium, there’s no engagement. It’s like the first century of the industrial revolution – everyone drank gin because they had no idea what to do with their free time.

Then the 5 day work week came along and so did television; we suddenly had the sitcom to occupy our brain, since we just didn’t know what to do with ourselves.

Think of that on a grand human race scale; we went from hunting and gathering to still working crazy hours on the farms, to industrialization and modern commerce and we suddenly had, as a race, more free time than ever.

We’re simply adjusting from gin to telly to social media. And I suspect we’re still in the very early stage as many sociologists think. We’re tossing apps at the iPhone wall and waiting for them to stick; most aren’t, but some will.

Sound reasonable to you?

(Author: G. Crouch)