I Don't See Internet, Onanism, Or Videogames On There....

September 20, 2011 10:28 AM

NYT interactive visualization of how different groups of people report spending thier day Data from the people who actually gathered the numbers without the flash or NYT. All data was gathered through the American Time Use Survey by the Bureau Of Labor Statistics.
posted by The Whelk (19 comments total)

Cool! That second link is a visualization directly inspired by the NYT piece, but built as separate charts rather than a stacked chart. It's built using D3, a Javascript library that's particularly good at doing transitions.
posted by Nelson at 10:34 AM on September 20, 2011

This was posted here before - when it came out in 2009, I think.
posted by vacapinta at 10:35 AM on September 20, 2011

Huh, the chart for black people doesn't have nearly as significant of a dip around lunchtime like all the other ones. I have no idea what this means.
posted by griphus at 10:36 AM on September 20, 2011

This comes out every year. I always find it depressing because, if I were asked to participate, "Metafilter" would be the largest slice of the pie.
posted by miyabo at 10:39 AM on September 20, 2011

My aggregate RescueTime dashboard suggests this is missing something.
posted by michaelh at 10:39 AM on September 20, 2011

Huh, the chart for black people doesn't have nearly as significant of a dip around lunchtime like all the other ones. I have no idea what this means.

Some jobs won't let you take lunch breaks.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:45 AM on September 20, 2011

I bet the dip in Black lunchtimes has to do with unemployment in general. Notice their TV usage is way up at the same time.

The difference between Bachelor's degree and Advanced degrees is that in the evening, the PhDs can't remember what they did. Hard drinking?
posted by DU at 10:48 AM on September 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

So most days 1% of the unemployed are working?
posted by blue_beetle at 10:53 AM on September 20, 2011

No one seems to spend much time "relaxing and thinking." I am going to do my part to turn that statistic around!
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:57 AM on September 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

I could have sworn that there are more people using a computer at 3 a.m. But maybe that's just me.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 11:00 AM on September 20, 2011

When you have a job where you have to bill your time, you quickly realize how much of "work" is "shit I can't bill for."

For instance, the time I spent writing this comment.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:03 AM on September 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

That's still an awful lot of sleep time that could be converted to work time. Lazy damned Americans.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:03 AM on September 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Woah. I refuse to believe that "computer time" is just that thin little sliver.
posted by naju at 11:04 AM on September 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

I spend most of my time online, watching port. I do though take a break to make snippy comment on places such as this one.
posted by Postroad at 11:10 AM on September 20, 2011

Interesting that every conventional stereotype about men and women seems to hold up. But ... flagged as a double.
posted by John Cohen at 11:12 AM on September 20, 2011

Some jobs won't let you take lunch breaks.

Also, perhaps some jobs are more likely to have "traditional" schedules where you work nine to five (or eight to six, or whatever it is) and take your lunch break at 12 or 1, while some jobs are more likely to have "nontraditional" schedules. So the person working noon to 9pm might take their lunch break at, say, 4, and the dip from those people gets mixed in with the people who are working 7-4 and just getting off work then. And of course whether you work a job with a "traditional" schedule is correlated with race.

(Although black people do also spend less time overall eating and drinking.)
posted by madcaptenor at 11:13 AM on September 20, 2011

No one seems to spend much time "relaxing and thinking." I am going to do my part to turn that statistic around!

Yeah, the "Work" stat scares me in pretty much all of these (except for the unemployed graph, but "TV & Movies" is almost as scary, considering the order there). It's like a big yellow monster that's determined to devour all the free time in the world.

It's kind of frustrating how meaningless all of these are, though. "Work" can be the meaningful guiding force of your life or it can be toil and drudgery. American TV is mostly terrible, but there are zillions of wonderful films that will make you a better person for seeing. Does driving to the grocery store or commuting to work count as "travel?" How much of "Socializing" is "mutually enjoyable, meaningful conversation" and how much is "boring stupid small talk LEAVE ME ALONE I DON'T CARE?" There's no room for quality or nuance in stuff like this, which always drives me crazy. It's neat to look at, but really it's meaningless.
posted by byanyothername at 11:13 AM on September 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I spend most of my time online, watching port.

I think you made a typo, it's watching ports. Unless you meant the wine, in which case carry on.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:13 AM on September 20, 2011

Postroad has tipped his hand. Attack from the starboard side!
posted by emelenjr at 11:15 AM on September 20, 2011 [6 favorites]