Who writes these things?

[digitaldiscipline]

As almost none of you know, I'm one of those people who actually takes the time to answer telephone surveys. (As I mentioned to the young woman who conducted the one I took last night thanked me profusely for being the first person in the 400 she'd called who'd done so, my time as a phone support monkey makes me sympathetic, and, frankly, I like giving my opinion on things - huge stunner, that).

Yesterday's was on advertizing media and their effectiveness. I enjoy the meta-analysis of what some polling company thinks of my demographic (male, 25-34) and, while I don't necessarily subvert the information, I think my responses are suitably out-of-round to ping their datastream, if only a little.

How much time do you spend doing each of the following in an average week?
- Reading the newspaper (0 hrs)
- Reading magazines (1 hr)
- Watching cable TV (5-10 hrs)
- Watching network TV (1-3 hrs)
- Surfing the internet (100 hrs - this seems roughly accurate, and stunned the woman completely)
- Using IM clients (60 hrs)
- Using email (60 hrs)
- Playing video games (30 hrs)

At this point, it became clear that I multitask all the damn time, and the poll accounted for it by asking which of these are done in parallel. "Wait, you mean you don't watch TV or do -anything- else while you read magazines?" "No, ma'am, they're in the bathroom." At which point, she lost her shit for a couple minutes.

What struck me as especially interesting were some of the "personality" questions.

Which would you rather give up for a month; pick one from each pair.
- Your computer or your car? (car)
- Coffee or video games (coffee - thank god there was a no-brainer)
- IM or cell phone (phone - it's handy, but not inextricably worked into daily life)
- Alcohol or email (booze, but upon hearing this, I think my initial response was "Holy shit, who's the sadistic fuck who comes up with these?")
- Sight or hearing (hearing - i do too much reading of things that don't have an audio channel)
- Sex or the internet (!!!!!!!! I love you all dearly, but you have my phone number, and I'd like to get laid before Christmas)

Since Car & Driver wasn't on the predefined list of magazines she had handy, the only print media I read that she had metrics for was MAXIM. . . afterward, she asked me what it was, because [surprisingly to me], she'd never heard of it, and ended up getting an earful of my armchair analysis of the magazine's maturation process and political slant, as well as how the second- and third-tier fodder for it ends up in Stuff and Blender, respectively (though Stuff gets the better cheesecake pics, IMNSHO).

But damn. . . give up alcohol or email / sex or the internet? Jeebus. . . .

Comments

[angel-renewed.livejournal.com]

Alcohol or email (email, but upon hearing this, I think my initial response was "Holy shit, who's the sadistic fuck who comes up with these?")

A true Jedi fears this person. Clearly, this person has no understanding of the balance of the force.

Yoda has spoken.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

doh. . . i actually said i'd give up booze. need to edit that.

[angel-renewed.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was wondering.....

[etcet.livejournal.com]

how you doing? saw the house thing, but didn't think YAWP (yet another woot post) would be too meaningful. :-)

[angel-renewed.livejournal.com]

Busy as heck. I've been AFPC (away from PC) most of the week. The hard part (finding house, getting person to agree to sell us house, applying for money for house) is currently done. Now, we just have to move Bob down and begin to furnish and fix-up the house. Luckily, this is not a total fixer-upper.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

*nodding*

we're still anxiously awaiting word from CO on K's interview, and I'm going to be spamming out resumes again shortly.

[angel-renewed.livejournal.com]

You're definitely moving to CO though, right? No hope for a Jedi takeover of Tampa?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

not unless Busch Gardens a) offers K the job she interviewed for and b) coughs up more than $12.43 an hour [for a -management- position, overseeing a half dozen people. . . are you shitting me?] and I start seeing some interest in my goddamn resume.

I'm tempted to start spewing out some kind of wacky-ass alternative-universe resume that says "I kick ass and take names, here's the phone book of those with my bootmark on their butt" and just leave it at that, because the only interest i'm seeing lately is from bot-crawlers who happen to notice keywords in the one i've posted on monster.com.

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

I answer surveys, too. I figure, I'm so off-center, such a poor target demographic (even now that "goth" has become a target demographic), I can skew the results ever so slightly. Also, I'm interested in the information gathering process. As much as I hated the survey place I worked for (a front for a right-wing think tank, and it showed), I LOVED the job. I was awesome at it, and never missed the baseline, and earned the largest paychecks they'd ever cut. (Best part of that job: the day we did a Louisiana survey, and I had to train the trainers on the correct way to say various names, because as you know, traditional transliterations don't do the trick! I got promoted a few days later.)

My favorite was the time I got paid $20 to answer a pet survey at the mall. The best part was, I blew through it so fast (it was a self-service computer thing) they thought I'd lied, until i explained that computer professionals can mouse and key a lot faster than average folks. But I had to wonder who these average folks are; I don't knwo anyone under 50 who isn't computer literate.

We don't have a published landline anymore, so I don't get to do as many. Too bad, but it cuts doen on the telemarketers, too, so oh well. Last one I did was for carbonated drinks. Odd how "ginger beer" confused the girl ("is that alcoholic?") and none of the natural sodas I drink were on her list. My data probably got thrown out of that survey, it was so off.

[poisongirl.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, I had given your initial response and moved on when it came to booze or e-mail. However, considering that one would have to choose and that I am absolutely wretched at replying to e-mail, I'd say mail.
Sex or the internet? No brainer. I can call people if I need to.

[wrldtravlr2.livejournal.com]

How about these - Which would you give up?

- Carbs or Cheese
- Email or IM
- Sight or touch
- Shower or baths
- Live Journal or e-mail
- Pizza or McDonald's

[dark-angel-nic.livejournal.com]

I occasionally answer these types of surveys if only to screw with their heads which does amuse me!

The thing is I dont really get why they never answer the 'important' questions, as opposed to which magazines do you buy on a regular basis....

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I would drop the following:
- Cheese
- IM
- [okay, you're evil - how about "one eye and my left side"]
- Baths
- LJ [anything of meaningful import can be emailed, I just miss out on meeting random ppl, such as yourself]
- McFood

[etcet.livejournal.com]

As I told last night's pollster - "I was usually less enthusiastic, but I've won a few gift certificates for participating." [dude, $200 from Best Buy for answering three questions about the Essence Festival? schweeeeeeet...]

[wrldtravlr2.livejournal.com]

"okay, you're evil - how about "one eye and my left side"

evil in a good way right? ;)

[geekers.livejournal.com]

But damn. . . give up alcohol or email / sex or the internet? Jeebus. . . .

SERIOUSLY! Those are some damn hard choices!!

[ldybastet.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.... sex or the internet?

I'd give up sex *grins* Because I'd get my sex fix over the internet anyway! *pets her kinky charries in various rpg's online*

Heh! Life as a single girl ;-)

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah. . . were I not cohabiting with the source of teh nookie, I'd probably have answered the other way, too.

Unless "sex" includes "even with yourself," which is just cruel and unusual.

My thoughts :)

[geeki.livejournal.com]

Hrm.
Considering I am now spending ENTIRELY too much time reading wedding magazines (if I see one more size 4 white dress I might just puke)....
I tivo everything I want to watch.
Hrm..Internet.
40 hours a week work...40 hours a week non work related. I would say only 80..maybe even 60. Although my IM is roughly ALWAYS on. In fact I think more people leave me IM messages instead of phone messages.

Is that sad?
Video Games.
ROFL. Uhm. entirely too much time? Especially since I *shhhhhh* quit EQ and have moved onto other games.

Of course...when I play it is on home PC, and the laptop is open with email, chat client, and surfing window.
I suppose that is sick.

Which would you rather give up for a month; pick one from each pair.
- Your computer or your car? (I agree ... car)
- Coffee or video games (coffee - although I like it...it isnt nessecary.)
- IM or cell phone (phone)
- Alcohol or email (alcohol. IN A SECOND. I am not allowed to drink anymore, since drinking for me = naked= pissed off fiance. No drinky.)
- Sight or hearing (hearing...although no music for a month, I would be ONE PISSY person.)
- Sex or the internet (Uhm....the longest we have gone on delay...was 5 days. I dont think a month would last or we would be attacking every object in the house...we would have to be strapped down for the month and I dont think that would help the situation.)