io9: survey

Insider Trading: You Give Us Data, We'll Give You Money

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:00:00 PST

We could make some clever comment about the economy, but we'll spare you. Take our survey, and someone will win a $300 AMEX card. Survey ends Wednesday at 6pm EST, so get at it. [Rules]

Take the io9 Cyber-bionic Survey

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:27:15 PDT

Yes, it's time for our every-few-months psychotronic, holistic, non-pornographic survey. As ever, we use this survey find out more about you so that our nice advertising department at Gawker Media can sell more ads in those wee sidebars, and thence allow io9 to continue thriving as the commercially-sponsored free thing that it is. In addition, those nice advertising people are sweetening the pot by offering you a chance to win a $300 Visa gift card if you fill out the survey (winners will be picked at random by fiendish mutants). You must complete the survey before next Wednesday the 20th to win. So go ahead and take the damn survey already — it will only take you 10 minutes.

Did Star Trek or Doctor Who Mold Your Brain?

Nivair H. Gabriel — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:30:00 PDT

I am a devoted Doctor Who fan in a family of Trekkies — and I'm also the only creative writer in a family of electrical engineers. Are those two facts related? What kinds of minds do science fiction shows attract — and, more importantly, what kinds of minds do they create? My first independent research project as an io9 intern will attempt to answer those questions. And it all starts with you.

If you're willing to share the details of your science fiction predilections in an anonymous survey, please help me out by taking the survey. Your responses will be used only for good, not for evil.

This 15-question survey shouldn't take you more than a couple of minutes, and it will be open for responses until April 30. Once I've collected and analyzed all the data, I'll report back with details on just how much science fiction has directed our lives!

Image above from Star Trek Meets Doctor Who.

Take the io9 Psychographic Survey

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:40:00 PDT

Yes, it's time for our every-few-months psychographic, demographic, non-pornographic survey. As ever, we use this survey find out more about you so that our nice advertising department at Gawker Media can sell more ads in those wee sidebars, and thence allow io9 to continue thriving as the commercially-sponsored free thing that it is. In addition, those nice advertising people are sweetening the pot by offering you a chance to win a $300 Amex gift card if you fill out the survey (winners will be picked at random by evil robots, and some contest rules apply). OK, so fill out the survey already. It will only take about ten minutes.

Your Sleep Patterns Are Controlled by Television

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:00:13 PST

Human sleep patterns were once controlled by circadian rhythms governed by day and night. But now, according to a new study, almost everyone in the United States has a sleep pattern that's controlled by when they watch TV. A massive survey on time management conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics shows that most people watch TV between 11 - 11:15, dropping off to sleep when they switch the tube off. The hour when nighttime falls affects this pattern very little. Human sleep patterns are therefore more malleable than believed, and it's possible people could change them as easily as changing channels.

According to the authors of the study, which comes out this week in the Journal of Labor Economics:

While natural daylight patterns have some effect on people's life patterns, the demands of global business—market openings, etc—and regular television schedule demarcate the boundaries of most Americans' lives . . . Individuals in early television zones (Central and Mountain) are 6.4 percentage points less likely to be watching television between 11 and 11:15 p.m. than those in later zones, but if the sunset is pushed back by an hour the probability of watching TV at 11pm only increases by about one percentage point. The implications for people who want to change their sleep patterns — to get up earlier, say, or go to bed at a regular time — are enormous. If you are somebody who watches TV, you can simply turn the TV off earlier and give your body a cue that it's time to sleep.

Another possibility is to change your working hours. The researchers say that along with TV, people's big sleep cue is time zone, especially as it relates to when you get to work or go home:

If you are in the "professional service" sector (finance, information, business services), you are more likely to follow the time zone cue, while you are in other services sector (education, health, leisure, and hospitality), you are probably more responsive to television cues.

Changing when you go to work within your time zone might be another way to trick your body into sleeping at a different time.

I love it when science actually backs up common sense. Though the idea that our circadian rhythms have been replaced by late-night TV rhythms is sort of creepy.

Early to Bed and Early to Rise . . . Depends on the TV Schedule in Your Time Zone [Eurekalert]

Let the Machine Overlords Hear Your Cry in Our Demographic Survey

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:40:51 PST

It's been nearly a month since io9 lowered its shields and initiated signal transmission. Now we want to know more about you, our readers. We've posted a brief demographic survey to harvest your innermost thoughts — but we don't want to know anything privacy-invading like your address or phone number. If you fill it out, you will be entered to win some credits with Amazon. So what will we do with the information on this survey, other than feed it to our machine overlords?

Well, basically, here's the deal. io9 is free to you because advertisers are going to start buying ads that will run on the site. You already knew this, so don't act all shocked. Usually advertisers want to know who the audience is that they're reaching with their ads — that helps them decide if they want to give us money to run their ads. So, in part, the demographic information is for advertisers (minus your names and email addresses, which we don't give out to anybody). So if you like io9 and want us to keep zooming, please support us by filling out the survey.

It may not make sense, but it is the way of consumer capitalism, my humanoids. In this region of this planet, it is our way of allocating resources — though many of our wise ones believe it will not always be. Still, it is how your friendly editors and writers at io9 are compensated for their labor, and earn money for spaghetti.

And so, take the freakin survey people. Jeez.

Demographic Survey for io9 [via io9 Master Control Program]