Saturday, August 28, 2010
Infographics In Economics
Infographics are a great way for students to dig a bit deeper and explore an issue. They are typically a combination of graphs, maps, visuals, charts and texts that can be explored through the internet. The New York Times has produced a wealth of these resources over the past few years and this week they are showcasing their best exhibits. It is important for students of Economics to be able to read and interpret visual information, to learn about the world around them. Click on the title on check out this infographic on how Americans spend their day. Check out the chart by activity and then by groups. Anything surprise you? Is this an accurate representation of how you spend the average day? Remember to leave your comments before Friday at midnight.
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47 comments:
I'm suprised that the people that don't have jobs spend the least time looking for one. For the people that do have jobs, it was suprising to see some of them working past midnight and 3 a.m. However, I did find it accurate for my age group. I know that I spend a great amount of time socializing and not doing household activities, like the graph shows.
In answer to another post, I believe that those people working past midnight and 3 a.m are doing night-shifts.
I, for one, is surprised that people who are unemployed and not in the labor force actually have 1% working. Does that even make any sense? Volunteering or very short term jobs? It's also interesting how people with one child have more work on their schedule than people with no children, but I guess its because they need more money.
Its a fairly adequate representation of how I spend the day. Though, computer use would take up a much larger amount, and traveling and sleeping would be much less.
Oh, one more thing. Unemployed people eat much less than others. Must be all the stress.
I'm real surprised by how much time people spend watching TV. For people that are unemployed and not in the labor force, they spend their time watching TV and doing house hold activities. And the percentage of unemployed, not in labor force people and age 65+ are doing volenteer is higher than other groups probably because they have more free time to spend.
And I was surprised to see that there are approximately 8% of age 65+ people is still working.
I was surprised to find that even though everyone is socializing more, especially since the options for socializing have increased, other sections such as TV and movies are larger than socializing.
Also, I don't think that volunteering counts as working for the unemployed because volunteering is it's own section. So that brings up the question of where and how the unemployed work.
The graph did show how my age group spends it's day accurately, with more time spent studying, as well as socializing.
A couple of things of the graph did shock me. First, I felt that the computer usage should be way higher because in this generation, we're all about technology. These days, almost everyone has a facebook. I'm pretty sure everyone who has a Facebook account that has daily access to the internet, gets on at least once a day. So the rate I saw seemed pretty off to me. Next, socializing was a shock too. The percentage should of been way higher. In all five of my classes, there is hardly any silent times during that hour. When we switch classes, the hallways sure are not quiet. In conclusion, the 1%-5% range of teens talking between 7:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. should be higher.
I found it surprising that people that have two or more children work slightly less than people who only have one child. They also spend more time caring for their family and house than people who only have one kid.
Also, I find that my age group is pretty accurate and that it is true that my age group barely spends any time relaxing. However, I do think that the socializing and computer use should form a bigger part of the graph and given that us teenagers spend a lot of time communicating with other people, and using the computer.
I am very surprised at how undefined the eating times are for unemployed people, though I suppose you could credit this to the amount of free time they have on their hands. I was also surprised that the average computer usage for the age group 15-24 was only 12 minutes. This would be very different for me. Besides that, I would say that the rest of the graph holds up well for how I spend my day.
It surprised me that unemployed people spent so much time watching TV and socializing instead of looking for a job. It doesn't surprise me that men spend less time doing household activities than women do. It also doesn't surprise me that only 20% of people with children are sleeping past 8:00 considering the amount or attention children need. Overall i thought the graph was very accurate
I was surprised by how little time the unemployed spend looking for work and how much time they spend sleeping. It was also a bit of a shock to find out how much time people spend watching TV and movies. The chart showed a pretty good representation of how I spend my time only I don't work or look for employment.
I must say, it's pretty entertaining to see how different groups of people send their day.
I'm surprised that people who are unemployed spend their leisure time doing random things rather than looking for a job. There's a higher percentage of them traveling than job searching. How'd they get the money to travel with no job?
I think how we (age 15-24) send our day is pretty accurate. We have very little time for relaxation with school and work (for those of us who work) to worry about. I'm aslo surprise that the percentage for computer usage is way less than traveling. Computer usage should have a higher percentage than traveling.
I am very confused on how unemployed people and those not even in labor force are even working at all. Also, I was surprised that only 1 in 6 people unemployed on average is even looking for a job.I feel like this graph is pretty accurate especially for people our age.I must say i expected more than an average of 1 percent computer use out of everyone though.
I am surprised to see that the unemployed only spend half an hour trying to look for another job because it usually is not enough time to go through a single interview even. I also think that this graph shows an accurate representation of how i spend my day except that i usually spend more time playing sports than using the computer. Another reason for this is that i currently do not have a part time job so this gives more time for other activities such as household chores and studying.
I, like many others, was surprised by the small amount of time unemployed people spend actually looking for jobs. Also, I was a bit skeptical of the amount of time people within the 15-24 age range are spending doing stuff online; 12 minutes seems very inaccurate and I have a sneaking suspicion some of the survey participants bended the truth a bit. The chart doesn't seem to be very accurate to how my day goes.
I am very surprised that the unemployed people are not spending much time looking for jobs and are just eating, drinking, and socializing. The graph is somewhat accurate, its obviously not gonna be totally accurate, but it's fairly decent. Some parts of the graph are similar to me, but some others are just extremely off.
I'm surprised that unemployed people can even do anything like watch tv or something.I thought most of them should be looking for a job. Also their looking for a job is also very low.
well it does not really represent how i spend my day. The school work takes up most of my time. Tv and movies are like only on weekends, so maybe 2% of my life.
I was surprised that for the age group fifteen to twenty-four years of age, at any given time the maximum percentage of people involved in education is twenty-two percent. I expected that number to be higher, considering that education up to the age of eighteen is often mandatory, while many high school graduates also go on to attend college. In addition, I had not previously realized that at any given moment during the day, the maximum percentage of the employed actually working is only roughly fifty percent. However, as a whole, I felt that the different distributions for each group are reasonable.
In all honesty, these statistics did not surprise me much. For example, the unemployed watch quite a bit of TV and socialize more; however, the New York Times had possibly considered one income families, where for example, the father works, while the mother stays behind to raise the family, as well. Notice that there is a significant amount of time dedicated to household activities, family care, and education. Despite the fact that there are housewives or househusbands in the U.S., there are just some people who cannot find a job or are sloths and cannot obtain a job because of that idiosyncratic personality.
John M. Keynes mentioned that in order to maintain full employment, the minimum wage must be small and that practically everyone must be spending in order to keep the money supply flowing. Also in today’s society one must get education in order to get a job, even a lowly job such as a secretary must have a Master’s degree! Some people cannot afford to go far because of money issues, and therefore, have a higher turnover rate.
Now with approximately 8% of persons aged 65+ issue that someone had addressed. This is not too surprising, since in the professional field, there are M.Ds, J.Ds, PhDs, and etc. still working even during the night. Now, to address the fact that 2-4% of Americans are working at such late times. Firstly, there are 24 hour stores, which require night shifts. Secondly, consider law enforcement officials and doctors, for example, just because doctor and nurses need to sleep, does not mean that people stop getting hurt or sick at those times or criminals suddenly stop committing crime during the nights, which leads back to my first point of late night shifts.
A surprising aspect of the statistic is our age group. Although it has a fairly accurate depiction of our, or more specifically my lifestyle (minus TV and movies, cause I do not watch movies or TV much), the socialization and computer usage time is significantly shorter than I thought. I think that it is most likely contributed to statistical error, or in reality how did the NY Times ask the question and compile the data. It is important to sort out the data right or ask the right questions in a survey such as this. For example, the NY Times might classify a group of friends socializing for movies, when they go out for a movie or the certain people may classify computer time as homework and forgot the fact that they had surf the web.
Now another thing that actually caused me to raise my eyebrow is the fact that Americans with an advance degree spend more time searching than another categorized highest education level groups. I firmly believe that it has to do with the application process for the professional fields, as a witness, is much longer than an average interview, and the resume a bit more detailed due to the American standard of owning legit licenses.
The graph is very accurate because if we think about our own personal days as kids, we usually dont talk on the phone till late at night, we dont sleep much during the day because most of us are at school, and we feel nighttime is the best time for movies. I was suprised to see how low the socializing percentage was because it seems most of us do socialize, but i guess its low because most of us socialize for short periods at a time during the middle of the day untill we are out of school, then we socialize like crazy.
I actually feel like the graph is a quite accurate representation of the American public. I was suprised to see how little time people spend relaxing and thinking. Then again, I know that I don't have much down time, and most people I know are always on-the-go. Maybe that's why we have so many people with high blood pressure and high stress levels.
Also, do young adults really spend 2 hours a day watching tv? That suprised me because I only watch 30 min or an hour every couple days. It seems wierd that yound adults would be that lazy since they are supposed to have the most energy.
I was pleasantly surprised that women appeared to focus on education more often then men, despite the graph typically supporting common stereotypes such as women shopping more often and men working more often. I did enjoy the fact the 65+ group watched more television and movies than any other group, including 15-24. Finally, I did like the fact that family and household focus tended to increase proportionally to the number of children in the family
I was surprised at the amount of time the unemployed spent watching TV and movies in comparison to searching for a job. They spend more than twice the amount of time doind leisurely activities instead of looking for a job.
I'm rather shocked by how computer usage is so low in the United States according to the graph. I always thought society was using computers more and more often as technology advances.
I'm also appalled by the statistics on how it shows those who are unemployed 10-30% or so spend most their day on TV and Movies. It is to my dismay that only 1 out of 6 unemployed individuals even bother to search for a job. I would think they would be worrying about getting a paycheck to pay for there next meal and try harder to get a job.
I find this is probably a fair representation of how Americans spend their day, aside from the amount of sleep people are getting and computer usage.
Something that really surprised me in this chart was that even in the middle of the day the percentage of Americans working never rose above 33%. I also found it strange that watching T.V. was so high while socializing and being on the phone are much lower. However it did seem mostly accurate for my age group.
I was surprised by how much time people spend traveling throughout their day. I was also surprised by how much time people spend watching movies and TV.
I think the graph is accurate of people in my age group because i know most people i know spend most of their time socializing or at school.
I found the graph only mildly surprising. In fact, I found it quite funny, such as when there were 1% of people aged 15-24 that couldn't remember what they were doing at 6:00 AM. I also saw how people aged 65+ have an average time of five minutes more than 15-24 of not remembering what they were doing, reasonable though. Women were also more forgetful than men. The data for 15-24 somewhat applied to me. My work would be 0% and what remains would go into education. I also watch much less T.V and movies, and the time reduced would add onto my computer usage. However, the data does have an accurate report on 85%+ of those in the 15-24 group.
I was truly surprised at the amount of time people spent socializing, being that I expected it to have a greater portion of the graph than what was shown. In comparison to my daily routine, I would say that this graph is a fairly accurate representation.
What surprised me the most was how most unemployed people spent more time watching tv or doing something other than looking for a job and how unemployed people spent, on average, almost the same amount of time looking for a job as they did shopping. the chart seems pretty accurate in my opinion. most people around my age do spend most of their time at school, doing homework, or at part-time jobs after school. However, i would of thought the average computer usage for my age group would have been much higher and i would have expected more people around my age to be involved in sports or some sort of fitness program like going to the gym or going out for a jog. Overall, the chart did seem accurate to as how i usually spend my day.
I was surprised by two main things from the graph. The most interesting/ surprising thing to me was that a majority of the unemployed people spend more time socializing and watching t.v., rather than searching for a job. Also another surprising thing that I learned from this graph was that out of all the people that the graph represents, on average only 8 minutes is the time these people spend on the computer. This is an accurate perception of how I spend my day because I do spend the majority of my time watching t.v., going to school, socializing, and like the graph says I hardly spend much time doing household activities.
What surpirsed me the most was the amount of people who are unemployed and didnt give a care. Although jobless these people spend their days unproductivily, eating,sleeping,and socializing. The graph is very accurate at least in accordance to my life, yet the amount of time spent on average for the computer was a shock.
Just like everyone else, I was surprised by how little the unemployed spent on searching for a job. The most shocking part is the amount of shopping they do, it makes you wonder whether they had money saved up or their planning on being in debt to credit card companies for awhile. For people around my age the graph seemed fairly accurate other than i would think computer use would be higher. I also thought that personal care might be higher since it seems more people my age go to the gym or do some other sort of physical activity than older age groups.
I was very suprised to see that people who are 65 and over spend more time watching television and socializing than people who are in high school and college. With those being the years many people go to parties and have fun, the data on the chart seems a bit unbelievable. Another thing that shocked me was the fact that unemployed people spend more time eating and drinking than they do searching for a job. It would seem that they wouldnt have any money to buy the food and drinks but apparently they have more than enough.
D.J. Hicks 7th Period
It surprised me that the ones who aren’t employed are not even attempting to look for a job. The fact that a lot of them worked past midnight and three a.m. however didn’t because obviously if someone needs work that bad they’ll take it when they find it. I can relate to the graph on my age groups typical activities because I myself spend a lot of time being unproductive watching television in my house
First, I was interested by the gradual increase of "relaxation and thinking" with an increase in age. There was a jump from about ten minutes a day for people 15-24, to thirteen minutes a day for those 24-65, and, astoundingly, a huge jump to thirty-five minutes a day for those over sixty-five. Furthermore, I was surprised when I saw the radical difference in time spent with family for those with one child and those with 2+ children.
I think this is a relatively accurate representation of how my time is divided. I would say that I watch less TV than the social norm, and in general, go to bed earlier.
I was astonished by two things that the graph showed. I found it really interesting that most unemployed people wasted their time spending it on worldly pleasures rather than actually searching for a sound job. Among all the other fascinating facts that the graph provided, one thing that caught my surprise was that several of these people contributed limited time towards computers usage. The way that I spend my time is a little different, after getting done with all my homework and school stuff, I go to my uncle’s gas station and spend the rest of the evening there until it gets really dark outside.
The thing that surprised me the most was how the unemployed spend twice as much time on leisure activities like watching T.V. and socializing instead of looking for a job. The graph is an accurate representation of my day, excluding the work aspect.
I was surprised to see that the unemployed spend a very minimal amount of time job hunting during the day when I feel like they should be doing that the most. I was also surprised by two different things in the 15-24 age group. One thing was how low the socializing percentage was, and the other thing was that only 1% focused on religion. Besides those two things, the information pertaining to my age seemed very accurate.
I found it surprising that unemployed people spend more time watching tv and movies, rather than searching for a job. Our generation has so much access to technology to go and socialize,either through a webcam or even instant messaging, but seeing ages 15-24 somewhat low percentage of this surprised me.
Overall, this infographic was an accurate representation of how I spend my day, although I do spend more time on the computer than it shows.
What I'm most surprised about is that the stereotypes given to men and women seem to be completely true. And while I am surprised at this, it makes quite a bit of sense.
Most of the information presented on the graphs was accurate from what I know of people and common sense.
As for my age group... It was mostly accurate. It seems I wake up earlier and do a some things a little differently, especially the computer time.
I found it surprising how little time unemployed people spend job searching. At 8:50 pm, for example, 39% of unemployed people are watching tv, while only 1% are job searching at that time. I was also surprised that only a small percentage of people actually eat breakfast. The group with the largest percentage of people who are eating from 7:00 am to 10:00 am is ages 65+. The graph for my age group is pretty close to how I spend my average day, except my computer use is probably greater than average.
I was surprised at the discrepancy between the amount of hours blacks and whites work in comparison to Hispanics.I was most surprised that only two percent of high school students are doing school work or are at school. That part of the graph seems inaccurate that only twp percent of student are at school and most of the time at work.
I found the fact that only about 20%-25% of 15-24 year olds spend their time from 9:00 A.M. to about 12:00 A.M.studying or at school. It would seem to me that the majority of those people are either in high school or college so it would seem logical that more than a quarter of them at best are in school. Otherwise, it is an accurate representation of how I spend my day.
I find it very interesting. I would say as far as high schoolers it is pretty accurate though some of us work and what not. like i thought it was interesting how they broke the graphs down by race as well. i just shows things from a different perspective.
I was most surprised to see the unemployed shop more then the employed its nice to see that the unemployment/welfare checks are going back into to the economy...as for the 15-24 age group I believe it was a pretty accurate representation with the exception that we get more sleep then the older age groups.
I am surprised to know that people with 2+ children more than one children. Even though it makes sense that they need more money to take care of the children. I was astonished by also seeeing the percentage of unemployed people looking for a job.
About, my age individuals (15-24) information were almost accurate. We have less relax fromthe school work and education is a main factor. But, they got one thing wrong is the time we use computers are way increased than that, becuse of the generation.
I thought it was very surprising how much time people spent watching tv shows and other entertainment programs. Also it was ironic how the unemployed spent the least time looking for a job.
I thought it was very surprising how much time people spent watching tv shows and other entertainment programs. Also it was ironic how the unemployed spent the least time looking for a job.
Its not very surprising how men spend less time doing household activities than women do. Also information about the teenagers are very accurate as they spent most time studying and socializing.
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