I’d Rather Be Writing – Tom Johnson

The Read/Write web has a fascinating post about the amount of time people spend in Web 2.0 activities. Here’s a graph from their post that sums it up.

In short, content creators, such as those who publish blogs and podcasts, spend 5-10 hrs a week. To be a community directory, you can spend 10-20 hrs.

I distinctly remember a question Thom Haller asked me after my presentation last year at Doc Train West. He threw up his hands and said, “Where do you find the time to do all this?” I had just been explaining how to use the Web Developer Firefox extension to see your blog’s styles and then tweak them in the stylesheet file.

This question caught me by surprise, but it’s one that has since come up again and again. My feeling is that everyone has time to do what they want in Web 2.0; it’s just a matter of priorities. I would say that I spend about 5-10 hours a week writing blog posts and producing podcasts.

For people who have second jobs or who work 70 hrs a week, dedicating a lot of spare time to Web 2.0 is unlikely.

Just curious about your thoughts. Do you feel you spend too much time in Web 2.0 activities? What would you like to be doing with your life instead?