LinkedIn's Big Problem: Most People Waste Their Time

Social media continues to offer greater and greater efficiency in networking. But do most people need to be more productive?

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From the November 6, 2011 New York Times profile of Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn and one of Silicon Valley's current golden gods of community building…

"Most people waste their time, so the question is, can a work-oriented site [LinkedIn] become extremely popular, when many people are not as invested in productivity?” --Joichi Ito, the director of M.I.T. Media Lab, who has known Mr. Hoffman for many years.

Great question Mr. Ito. It may surprise people to learn that most working Americans still put in a 40-hour workweek while successful entrepreneurs--those net worths between $1 million and $10 million--tend to work 70 hours a week. Productivity is most important to those who need to find greater efficiencies in their day. If that was what most Americans struggled with, there wouldn't be millions of people Tweeting about what they had for breakfast and Facebooking funny street signs.

What do you think? Do most people have too much time on their hands and is the proliferation of social media proof positive of this?

Lewis Schiff is the chairman and executive director of Inc. Business Owners Council, and the author of the book, The Middle-Class Millionaire. He can be reached by email, on twitter or by phone: (800)536-0046. @lewisschiff