The American Diet: 34 Gigabytes a Day

New York Times

A report published Wednesday by the University of California, San Diego, calculates that American households collectively consumed 3.6 zettabytes of information in 2008. The paper — entitled “How Much Information?” — explores all forms of American communication and consumption and hopes to create a census of the information we consume.

I’ll be honest: this is the first time I’ve ever used the word zettabyte. I’ve heard of petabytes and even exabytes, but zettabytes are a whole new level of bytes. If a zettabyte is beyond your comprehension, too, it’s essentially one billion trillion bytes: a 1 with 21 zeros at the end. To put that into perspective, one exabyte — which equals 1/1000 of a zettabyte or 1 billion gigabytes — is roughly equivalent to the capacity of 5.1 million computer hard drives, or all the hard drives in Minnesota.

HMI Report/UC San Diego A graph from the report illustrating the dissection of words consumed each day.

So where does all this information we consume come from? Everywhere, it turns out. The report suggests the average American consumes 34 gigabytes of content and 100,000 words of information in a single day. (Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is only 460,000 words long.) This doesn’t mean we read 100,000 words a day — it means that 100,000 words cross our eyes and ears in a single 24-hour period. That information comes through various channels, including the television, radio, the Web, text messages and video games.

The report also describes our voracious appetite for information and entertainment. In addition to the amount of information we consume, the researchers looked at how much time we devote to each medium. The study suggests that, on average, most Americans consume 11.8 hours of information a day. Most of this time is spent in front of some sort of screen watching TV-related content, taking up a little over four and a half hours of our daily information consumption. Then there’s the computer, which we interact with for about two hours a day. There’s also the phone, radio, music, and print. Most of these experiences happen simultaneously, too, such as talking on the phone while checking our e-mail, or instant messaging while watching TV.

The report also found a huge increase in the number of bytes we consume related to video games. Roger Bohn, professor of technology management and co-author of the study, said, “Gaming saw the biggest leap in the number of bytes we consume and the amount of time devoted to this platform.” This isn’t just first-person shooting games but also includes lots of analytical games like Bookworm, Tetris as well as social networking games.

Bohn also told me, “Print media has declined consistently, but if you add up the amount of time people spend surfing the Web, they are actually reading more than ever.”

Overall, from 1980 to 2008, the number of bytes we consume has increased 6 percent each year, the researchers said, adding up to a 350 percent increase over 28 years. At this rate, it won’t be long before we’re marveling at the next level of bytes: yottabytes.

Funding for the research project came from AT&T, Cisco Systems, I.B.M., Intel, LSI, Oracle and Seagate Technology, with early support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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Why Your Brand Needs a Voice on Twitter

At any given moment, there are millions of conversations taking place on the Internet. These discussions are occurring on blogs, within chats, on social networking communities like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, on image and video sharing sites and via micro-blogs like Twitter. Consequently, there is likely a conversation about you and/or your brand. This conversation "about" you is going to happen with or without your participation. Hence you are left with a choice. You can certainly hang back and allow others to shape your image, but if you want to have some part in the process you had better be involved. Twitter is one of the easiest, most effective ways to do this. It's free, it's simple, it's in the moment and there are always people listening and engaging in conversation.

There was a time not very long ago when a sales representative would personally visit each of his or her accounts on a regular basis. There was a shaking of hands, an exchange of personal stories and perhaps even the sharing of a cup of coffee or a meal. For the most part, this is no longer feasible. With travel costs and the ever-widening reach of many businesses, the personal connection has been lost or, at best, is much less frequent. Accordingly, the human touch to doing business has threatened to disappear from the corporate landscape. But with the advent of the Internet, something almost magical has happened. People have reached out through the Web to reestablish that human connection. Thus has been the birth of social media. People turn to the World Wide Web to share thoughts, obtain feedback on ideas, find information and even complain about companies and products with which they are dissatisfied. Here they have found a powerful voice. Not only is Twitter a vehicle for these human connections, but companies have realized that it is also a place to offer customer service, gather consumer information and provide a personal touch to their clients -- a sense that they are always available. Through the utilization of social networking, organizations are engaging in highly transparent interaction to strengthen their brand and foster relationships with key audiences.

From the earliest days of man's existence we have clung to groups (families, clans and associations). As John Donn once wrote, "No man is an island unto himself." Think of Twitter as an association - a very large and all-encompassing association; a gathering of like-minded individuals who promote industry, promote each other, encourage ideas and even nudge those who may be going astray. Although there are no "elected" officers as in a more traditional organization, there are definite leaders. Meetings are ongoing, rather than monthly. People come and go each day, but the conversation continues because members are across the globe in every time zone.

This Twitter association offers both safety and power. A brand which possesses a presence on Twitter has the ability to assemble a network built on trust and loyalty, as well as the power to guide its image and enjoy the safety that power provides. Additionally, Twitter provides a platform with which to respond and counteract negative comments that may arise about a brand, all while summoning the support of the associations and relationships fostered by this medium.

Many brands have already found their way to Twitter. The successful ones possess a human voice behind them, communicating the brand message and networking with customers, business associates and industry colleagues. This communication is conducted on interpersonal terms, aiming to refrain from the characteristics of a sterile corporate message board or an advertising billboard.
Companies actively engaged on Twitter enjoy the strength of a loyal network. But more importantly, these organizations have the opportunity to mold a positive image for their brand every day - and so can you.