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The "Hidden Cost" Of Distraction

Tyler Durden's picture




 

The ever-rising ranks of youth unemployment coupled with the increasingly cheap and easy access to "distractions" from the dismal realities of life (if one is not a wealthy leveraged shareholder) mean a lot of potentially productive time is totally and utterly wasted in this world... how much time? As The Economist joking notes, the loony music video “Gangnam Style” surpassed two billion views on YouTube this week, making it the most watched clip of all time. At 4:12 minutes, that equates to more than 140m hours, or more than 16,000 years (the equivalent manpower it would take to build 4 Great Pyramids of Giza or 20 Empire State Buildings).

 

Via The Economist,

THE loony music video “Gangnam Style” surpassed two billion views on YouTube this week, making it the most watched clip of all time. At 4:12 minutes, that equates to more than 140m hours, or more than 16,000 years.

What other achievements were forgone in the time spent watching a sideways shuffle and air lasso?

It took 50m man-hours to complete the “supercarrier” USS Gerald Ford last year. Had people not been watching PSY—the South Korean pop star who released the song in July 2012—they could have constructed three such ships. Alternatively they could have built more than four Great Pyramids of Giza, or another Wikipedia, or six Burj Khalifas in Dubai (the world’s tallest building). The song’s nearest rival is Justin Bieber’s “Baby”, at a paltry one billion views.

The opportunity cost of watching PSY’s frivolity is huge, but humanity has at least been entertained.

 

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Mon, 06/09/2014 - 14:51 | 4837950 Shizzmoney
Shizzmoney's picture

Oh the plebs and their "leisure"....how dare they!

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:03 | 4838003 ZerOhead
ZerOhead's picture

"At 4:12 minutes, that equates to more than 140m hours, or more than 16,000 years."

 

Let's see...  that would have more likely been another 140 million hours of break & enters... car jackings... drive by shootings... followed by 100,000 years of very expensive prison sentences...

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:05 | 4838018 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

Not to mention the 50 billion it takes to incarcerate them.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:20 | 4838075 pods
pods's picture

Maybe everyone watched it cause all of those things were already built?

It is just a music video.  If I cannot take 4 minutes to watch something I want to I would be on a clock tower.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

pods

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:01 | 4838270 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

And on a clock tower makes you a conspiracy theorist. ;-)

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:50 | 4838220 GOLD AND SILVER...
GOLD AND SILVER NATZI's picture

Exactly.  C'mon ZH, what a ridiculous article.  Life sucks so badly, the momentary distractions are the only thing that keeps it tolerable.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 22:24 | 4839365 jonjon831983
jonjon831983's picture

That's what legalized mj is for.  Makes the PSY even better.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:58 | 4838256 Monty Burns
Monty Burns's picture

Sir Bertrand Russel said that time wasted having fun wasn't time wasted.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:00 | 4837983 DoChenRollingBearing
DoChenRollingBearing's picture

 

 

There may be an real issue of overcapacity in the world now.  More products being produced (at a higher cost than can be withstood by customers) than demand.  This is not bullish, and might partly explain why so many people can do nothing but waste time...

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:26 | 4838373 RockyRacoon
RockyRacoon's picture

Is it true that the participants watched all 4.5 minutes?  If so, the attention span has actually increased!  Wouldn't that be a good thing?

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 17:33 | 4838603 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

I was thinking that given government destruction of all economies, what's the point of working?

"We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us."

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:00 | 4837985 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

How much time do us dumb fucks spend distracted on the Hedge? It's amazing that we live in a time in history where we don't have to spend the majority of our time trying to survive and yet we choose to use that spare time to watch stupid shit like Gangnam style.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:05 | 4838015 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

The danger with spending too much time on ZH is that you could easily collect too many dots and fail to connect them.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:06 | 4838016 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:11 | 4838041 pods
pods's picture

But Doc, the Hedge is educational, like porn.

pods

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:20 | 4838072 NOTaREALmerican
NOTaREALmerican's picture

Re:  watch stupid shit

That was supposed to be the purpose of "productivity improvements" in the past.   So, people had more time to "watch stupid shit".  

In the end, what else is there?

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:36 | 4838156 JohnG
JohnG's picture

 

 

I'm going to get to work on a model stonehenge in the yard right now.  Cut down a pine tree last friday.

Pinehenge it is.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:09 | 4838304 NOTaREALmerican
NOTaREALmerican's picture

You should put a stonehenge vintage model train around it.   I'll come over and help you build it.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 19:06 | 4838881 Hulk
Hulk's picture

At the end of our life, we get all the time we spent on the hedge back !!! Its in the hedge manifesto !!!

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:00 | 4837987 Quintus
Quintus's picture

I'd like to see the equivalent numbers for the World Cup. Over a billion viewers, many of whom will waste many hours of potentially productive lifespan finding out which team of overpaid lowlifes is best at hitting a ball with their foot.

Madness.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:02 | 4838272 Monty Burns
Monty Burns's picture

I know a guy who plans to spend his whole 4 weeks vacation watching the WC. Plans to see every game.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:06 | 4837994 Zirpedge
Zirpedge's picture

The premise of the above "equivalent" construction chart hinges on the ability of the brain washed viewers of said "Gang-nam style" video to have any type of construction skill or any marketable craft skill for that matter. This generation of passive beta-mindcontrol observers are a product of learned helplessness via social conditioning that is 100's of years in the making. Reserach Freud and his cousin Edgar Bernays who implemented the first social engineering programs state side. This post-industrial era is no accident. Look up the BBC Documentary series "Century of the Self" for info on Edgar Bernays, it succinctly explains these "social phenomena". South Korea is just a dominated western outpost for this filfth. Also, click fraud.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:31 | 4838130 Tapeworm
Tapeworm's picture

@Zirpedge, +++

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:00 | 4837998 AccreditedEYE
AccreditedEYE's picture

Who cares? Not only does "hard work" no longer build the world we live in today, Policy Makers and Bankers have found a way to segregate the worker and move forward without him/her. 

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:16 | 4838054 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

King dollar!

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:03 | 4838006 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

The erroneous presumption in this article is that those wasting their hours watching such videos are actually capable of building pyramids, aircraft carriers and the like.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:06 | 4838024 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

Pyramids maybe, how hard is it to pull a rope?  Aircraft carriers, not so much.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:11 | 4838040 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

I thought aliens built the pyramids.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:13 | 4838045 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

They were merely the advisors.  Consultants if you will.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:19 | 4838068 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

There were giants in those days, and they looked upon the daughters of men and said, "Damn!  They be fine!  Give them to us and we will show you how to built some really cool shit!"

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:42 | 4838182 cro_maat
cro_maat's picture

And now we are repeating the same mistakes of the Atlanteans. Wait til the TPTB remember how to trap elemntals in robots.

Hey we need another round of popcorn and beer over here!

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:20 | 4838073 oklaboy
oklaboy's picture

nannnuuu  naaanuuu.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:58 | 4838253 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

You do know that's alien for "I want an anal probing", right?

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 17:26 | 4838590 oklaboy
oklaboy's picture

right after Obamster gets done....

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 18:40 | 4838804 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

According to reports and his faked birth certificate, he's an alien too.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:14 | 4838052 Terminus C
Terminus C's picture

We know they built the aircraft carriers.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:01 | 4838271 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

Probably illegal aliens,

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:23 | 4838088 PeeramidIdeologies
PeeramidIdeologies's picture

Obviously you've never tried to build a pyramid. It's hard work that's is not possible with rope and tackle. Despite what you have been taught.
Second it is a dated notion pyramids were man made. In fact there are new theories (conspiracy included) that suggest the Gaza structures were designed with a much more complex purpose in mind then for burial grounds. Unlike the average aircraft carrier, which can be slapped together in a couple years, over budget, by the lowest bidder, and may soon prove to be some of the largest man made "tombs" constructed yet.

Just some food for thought

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:34 | 4838148 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

Call me crazy, but I'm fairly certain he was just cracking a joke.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:59 | 4838259 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

Fack, I never get humor or sarcasm over text. :rollseyes:

EDIT:  Oh, crazy!

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 17:39 | 4838620 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

I always read every comment here with dripping sarcasm. Even if it isn't, it's still better than paying attention to some rant/lecture.

Besides, Poe's Law says you're screwed either way. So you might as well enjoy it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 17:05 | 4838526 PeeramidIdeologies
PeeramidIdeologies's picture

Lol I guess my whimsical tone is also lost amongst the diggybits, I meant no offence, only light provocation. ;)

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:07 | 4838027 wstrub
wstrub's picture

How much of our lives do we spend being entertained by watching someone else's life go by and TOTALLY missing living our own!!!!!!!!

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:09 | 4838029 Jena
Jena's picture

Not to mention it's a great way to divide everyone into angry factions that keeps us all arguing while we're robbed blind.  Well played.*

 

*edited for literacy, more or less.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:08 | 4838030 franciscopendergrass
Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:17 | 4838060 astoriajoe
astoriajoe's picture

Without some form of bread, we starve.

Without some form of circuses, we go insane.

All things in moderation.

 

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:25 | 4838091 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

In the eyes of the puppeteers we ARE the circus.
As for the bread it isn't what it used to be. Its chromosone structure has been changed for the worse and it's killing us.
And to top it all off, you now have to pay to get into the Colosseum, whether it's called a stadium, cable TV or cinemas.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:12 | 4838305 mr.n3utr0n
mr.n3utr0n's picture

You've lost the meaning of the phrase.

This phrase originates from Rome in Satire X of the Roman satirist and poet Juvenal (circa A.D. 100). In context, the Latin metaphor panem et circenses (bread and circuses) identifies the only remaining cares of a new Roman populace which cares not for its historical birthright of political involvement.

Here Juvenal displays his contempt for the declining heroism of his contemporary Romans.[5] Roman politicians devised a plan in 140 B.C. to win the votes of these new citizens: giving out cheap food and entertainment, "bread and circuses", would be the most effective way to rise to power.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrN433XHi24

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:45 | 4838062 NOTaREALmerican
NOTaREALmerican's picture

I'd rather they watch Gangnam Style than waste money on another aircraft carrier.

Besides,  what "benefit" do people get from perpertually working JUST for the sake of working?  

Who does get "the benefits of work"?

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 17:42 | 4838630 NotApplicable
NotApplicable's picture

Benefit? Why just look at all the thousands of empty houses and millions of new cars all sitting and rotting away.

Entropy wins again!

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:19 | 4838065 explosivo
explosivo's picture

Those people voluntarily chose to watch the video instead of producing. Therefore that time watching the video was more valuable that productive time. What does that say about the value of producing nowadays? There isn't much benefit to it if people would rather watch PSY. This illustrates a general lack of connection between action and benefits due to the all-encompasing state which steals production at every turn. 

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:33 | 4838141 SWCroaker
SWCroaker's picture

I get it!   We don't need no more stinking Empire State buildings or aircraft carriers, and the market for pyramids is like, so dead.   Haven't seen one of those move on Zillow in, omg, centuries!        Has anyone told Krugman about this?

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:19 | 4838066 My Days Are Get...
My Days Are Getting Fewer's picture

This article reinforces my belief that the world does not have sufficient work to employ all of those who want to work.

Distraction and ennui, via drugs and alcohol, keeps many out of the work force.

Governments and big corporations are fattening people up big time - only healthcare and big pharma profit. Those people are not only unfit for military service - they are too risky to hire because of their bad health.

In one generation, there will be an entire class of people filing for permanent disability the day they graduate from high school.  How well or poorly their are maintained depends on government.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:30 | 4838125 NOTaREALmerican
NOTaREALmerican's picture

It should be pretty obvious that only the above-average people are needed now.   The problem is that the below-average people won't admit they are inferior to the above-average people and simply kill themselves.  

When all production is automated, and all simpleton services are automated (automated cars, for example), what are the blow-average loser trash humans supposed to do (other than watch sport, porn, and shop for bling)?

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:35 | 4838150 SWCroaker
SWCroaker's picture

In sci-fi a recurring theme is the "acitve and energetic" people leave the slum that is Earth.       We need intersellar travel, and badly.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:43 | 4838186 NOTaREALmerican
NOTaREALmerican's picture

Re:  We need intersellar travel, and badly.

As long as "we" are part of the smart-n-savvy people.      Otherwise,  "we" will be stuck here.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:42 | 4838183 dvfco
dvfco's picture

The screwed up thing about this is that 50% of all the students graduated in the bottom half of the class in every school I attended.  I hear it's the same for doctors graduating medical school.

If you think I needed to add the /sarc, you might be what we refer to as a 'leftie', or someone on the left side of the IQ bell curve.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:39 | 4838432 kurt
kurt's picture

Exactly how far up your own ass can you go? You, mein herr, worship at the altar of Social Darwinism. You are so afraid that you may be average that you run about toot toot tooting you little "superiority" tin fuckin' horn. Look inside, shitballs, it's fucked up in there in your seedy little rat hole, there, up at the top of your colon.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:47 | 4838208 cro_maat
cro_maat's picture

My Days Are Get...   - We are being fattened up?

Long Soylent Green!! Hey did Monsanto trademark that name yet?

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:40 | 4838444 Frilton Miedman
Frilton Miedman's picture

 

 

This article reinforces my belief that the world does not have sufficient work to employ all of those who want to work...."

80 years ago, Keynes postulated that in order to maintain full employment we'd have to downsize to 15 hour work weeks within 100 years due to technology's impact on labor demand.

Robots in Detroit, Turbotax instead of H&R Block, PCLN instead of trravel agents, computers in place of floor traders, Amazon in place of brick/mortar....

We have 20 years to go, at the rate of decline in U-6, he may have had a point.

Methinks this whole "Socialism" debate is only going to become more common in years to come.

 

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:21 | 4838080 qazwsx
qazwsx's picture

O   O  O-O-O  OPPA GANGNAM STYLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:21 | 4838081 Panafrican Funk...
Panafrican Funktron Robot's picture

Just wanted to point out some factual information:

Orangutans spend 8 hours a week on productive activity necessary for their survival.

Their cousins, homo sapiens, spend way the fuck more than 8 hours a week on productive activity necessary for their survival.

Which species is more evolved?

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:31 | 4838131 NOTaREALmerican
NOTaREALmerican's picture

The smart-n-savvy people living off the work of the dumbasses.  

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:30 | 4838121 messymerry
messymerry's picture

Pah, this is nothing. 140 million man hours is wasted like every fifteen minutes on facebook and pintrest alone...

;-D

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:37 | 4838151 Frilton Miedman
Frilton Miedman's picture

 

 

 

This is boring.

Let's all verbally assault eachother over Liberal Commie Socialists and Redneck gun rights.

All this silly talk about "distractions" is distracting us from our distractions.

 

 

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 15:43 | 4838191 Pitchman
Pitchman's picture

Willful Blindness is an individual abdication of responsibility.  It is a choice and it is banal, in that a vast majority of the population chooses this path.  It's also the reason we find the world in its present state. - The Banality of "Willful Blindness"

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:08 | 4838295 teslaberry
teslaberry's picture

the great irony here is that

doing work and getting paid to 'create entertainment' is considered 'productive'
but consuming it is not.

production and consumption are all relative.

much of the productionism is paired with incessant needless consumerism, tied at the hip.

we are living in a time of great 'wealth' by economic measurements, and perhaps this contributes the the reason that we are spiritually impoverished, lacking balance in our understanding and practice of LIVING WELL. which is largely defined by balancing out the economics of production and consumption with the unquantifiable qualities of living well. helping people, taking a daily walk for good health and mind, relaxing outside doing NOTHING, throwing rocks in a can, farting...etc....

but don't work, i'm sure economists can write papers about those things as well.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:45 | 4838459 Bear
Bear's picture

Unfortunately the people that watch GS arn't the same ones producing anything

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:47 | 4838473 Fix It Again Timmy
Fix It Again Timmy's picture

With HFT and saving account rates under 1%, your best investment is a good time....

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:48 | 4838476 zipit
zipit's picture

DELTED

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:49 | 4838485 Caveman93
Caveman93's picture

Hope they don't calculate time fapping to porn. Geez! Where did my life go!?

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 16:52 | 4838497 kurt
kurt's picture

Har, fuckin' Har!

Now calculate the foregone production of the true unemployment rate using Shadowstats.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 17:02 | 4838518 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

That gang nam guy should be awarded a medal of honour from preventing 'americans' from being productive.

As 'americans' produce more than they consume, who knows? If they are left doing their things, emptiness will no longer be the main characteristic for the universe.

Mon, 06/09/2014 - 17:52 | 4838657 I Write Code
I Write Code's picture

How many electrons died so they could watch that nonsense?

Psy's carbon footprint must be larger than Algore's.

Anyway maybe we should be glad they didn't build any aircraft carriers, as they probably would have been built in, by, and for China.

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