65% of Americans Spend More Time With Their PC Than SO

Ant writes "PR Newswire reports that 65 percent of consumers are spending more time with a computer than with their significant other (SO). The "Cyber Stress" study confirmed consumers' growing relationship with technology in their everyday lives. In fact, more than 8 out of 10 Americans (84%) say they are more dependent on their home computer now than they were just three years ago."

Comments

Techno-Dystopia

[P(0)(!P(k) P(k 1))]

From TFA:

“We empathize with consumers about the emotional nature of dealing with computer problems. As the leader in computer problem resolution for nearly 10 years, we have a distinct advantage in helping consumers quickly and conveniently solve their frustrating computer problems,” said Josh Pickus, CEO of SupportSoft.

SupportSoft sells support; so they're interested in a dystopian state of affairs. (For my part, I'm still not convinced we're not dealing with a slashvertisement.)

That said, computers play some yet-to-be-determined role in the splintering of society; as the space-time-continuum is warped, and proximity becomes irrelevant: neighbours become irrelevant.

A real dystopia, therefore, might be the flattening of human relationships into one indifferent, indistinguishable mass.

But since Europeans and European-Americans aren't breeding anymore, it doesn't matter: you'll all be dead within a generation.

Re:Techno-Dystopia

[MrAnnoyanceToYou]

What, you're surprised government is a Ponzi scheme?

Try, "All of Western society." Basing large organizations on finance resembles nothing more than using a just in time compiler to me. The amusing thing is that it appears there's no way people are smart enough as a whole to either design or accept a more intelligent solution.

Reading the Wikipedia article on Ponzi shows something quite interesting - he gave people exactly what they wanted, and the only ones to get advantageous results were those who cashed out right before it all fell apart. Just another story of catastrophic market failure; I love how everyone sees these things coming and noone says, "Wait. How do we stop this before it gets too big?"

Sounds right

[WinterSolstice]

In my family, my wife is a writer. I'm an IT guy. At night, we play WoW together.

Added together, our total time at home together (including sleep) is about 11 hours. That means 13 hours is spent with a computer seperately right off the bat.

Considering our nights are often spent playing 3-4 hours of WoW, that puts it at 17 hours on the computer per day. Even at best, we would spend probably 3-4 hours a day together, which wouldn't even put a dent in the usual 8-10 hours at work with a computer.

-WS

Color me suprised!

[Sax Maniac]

Wow, a study commissioned by support.com says people need support! From a PR newsire, nonetheless. And we're not even people, but "consumers". Come on, if you're going to write fake news reports on fake studies, at give the appearnace of trying by not using marketroid speak.

Tag this one as "shill".

Grow closer apart.

[w33t]

People spend more time with lots of things than with their SO. I would argue that this can be healthy.

After all, if you want to get sick of someone there is no better way than spending every waking moment with them.

I know it's all down to personal preference, but I find that time apart is every bit as important as time together.

The trick is to balance the two - too much of one or the other is bad, you need just the right amount of together and seperate time.

I used to-

[IWantMoreSpamPlease]

spend nearly all my time outside of work on my PC. Then I got a job in the PC world, and then I quit being on it outside of my normal job.

Then I met a girl, and got married. Since she turned out to be a complete psycho bitch (I should have known...should have known) and now spend all my free time *back* on the PC, and away from her as much as possible.

And They're Probably Less Dependent On

[eldavojohn]

In fact, more than 8 out of 10 Americans (84%) say they are more dependent on their home computer now than they were just three years ago.

Shocking 'facts' aren't they? But they failed to mention that these people who find themselves more dependent on computers probably find themselves less dependent on other things. For instance, transportation. You don't have to go down to the mall and hoof around looking for a CD or even books for that matter. You don't have to go out to rent videos--just use Netflix or Blockbuster. Why are malls becoming predominantly clothing stores? Because you can't try clothes on online. You can do your banking online now and I'm sure the things you can do online instead of driving your vehicle to the office to make the payment are numerous.

And I'll bet these people are a little less glued to their televisions than they were three years ago. And instead of going to the movies or getting hammered at a bar, they might find an online game to be a bit more entertaining.

The obvious downside is that I'm sure that some people are probably less active than they were before, but not all of them. If you percieve this to be a growing threat or strain on relationships, market software/hardware that makes the PC experience something shared between two people. I know tons of couples (and families) that have two or more computers and they simply play games like WoW together.

Honestly, I don't see anything unhealthy with this trend so long as the people excersize or go out walking/running once a week or more.

Re:Does that include work-related computer use?

[Nos.]

That, and does it consider time spent sleeping with your SO (and yes, I actually mean sleeping, not other "activities") as time together? My guess is that it doesn't. So, this is a very believable statistic. I spend all day at work with a computer, and some time at home. I only spend about 5 - 6 hours of waking time with my wife a day. It really doesn't say anything about how our lives are spent, just acknowledges that computers are becoming a bigger part of our lives, but they are not necessarily intruding upon our time with our families.

Another B.S. Study

[__aagmrb7289]

After doing the RTFA stuff, I noticed something, umm, interesting? It doesn't bother to distinguish between using the computer at home, and using the computer at work. Considering the fact that MOST people spend more of their time WORKING then being AT HOME, 65% seems rather low now, doesn't it? I mean, is it REALLY true that 35% of Americans don't have to deal with a computer, constantly, at work? Good for them! Stupid B.S. sensationalist studies give scientific studies a bad name.