The average Internet user spends 16 seconds per message to determine that an e-mail is spam and delete it, according to a study released by Wellesley, MA-based Nucleus Research.
As a result, spam costs $712 per user per year and American companies lose more than $70 billion a year in lost worker productivity, the study determined.
OK, now look at your watch. Count off 16 seconds. Seriously. Do it.
Now, does anyone really think that it takes 16 seconds on average to detect and delete spam? Nope, two to three seconds is more like it.
When asked how they arrived at such an unbelievably high figure, Nucleus Research said through a spokesman they got it “from the users themselves.” Apparently this is how long on average the 849 survey respondents said they spent identifying and deleting spam.
Shouldn’t it have occurred to the folks at Nucleus Research that the survey respondents are probably wrong?
This latest nonsense “lost-productivity” spam number derived from simply regurgitating what people said is reminiscent of a somewhat gruesome, but true, story of a reporter whose work showed a complete lack of common sense.
He worked like a good court stenographer, dutifully recording and typing everything sources said without a trace of incredulity—even when the claims were obviously false.
One day, the reporter called in saying he would not be coming to work. The preceding evening, he attempted to core a piece of fruit by driving the point of a knife into one end while holding the other end of the fruit in the center of his other palm. He drove the knife straight through the center his hand.
Yow.
So why tell this story today? Here’s why. Message to Nucleus Research: Just because people say they spend 16 seconds on average identifying and deleting spam doesn’t mean they do. Common sense says this cannot be possible.
Message to everyone else: Don’t get too close to Nucleus Research employees when they use sharp objects.
