Fun_People Archive
4 Mar
Home PCs Rank First . . .

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Tue,  4 Mar 97 12:56:17 -0800
To: Fun_People
Subject: Home PCs Rank First . . .

Forwarded-by: Keith Bostic <bostic@bostic.com>
Forwarded-by: Rob Mayoff <mayoff@tkg.com>
Forwarded-by: Edupage, 2 March 1997

HOME PCs RANK FIRST IN DOING NOTHING

Forget about productivity -- a recent study by the NPD Group found that
the majority of the time that home PC is running, it's doing... nothing!
The study monitored 10,076 computer-owning households and used its PC
Meter software to tally the time the computers sat idle following an
initial 60 seconds of no activity on the keyboard or mouse.  Fifty-four
percent of the time the machines were switched on, they were not being
used, and when they were used, the biggest chunk of time (29%) was devoted
to "futzing" -- fiddling around with operating systems, organizing files,
changing "wallpaper" and screensaver patterns, and altering the speed of
the cursor blink.  Meanwhile, word processing and business software use
took up 16% of the time, and Internet surfing accounted for only 12%.
The Sierra Club points out that turning a computer on and leaving it on
unused for three hours a day results in about 200 pounds of carbon dioxide
pollution every year.  (Wall Street Journal 28 Feb 97)

© 1997 Peter Langston