43 Things

They say you're more likely to stick to your resolutions if you write them down and share them with others--I suppose that's partly why I'm writing this blog. It's also why the social networking site 43 Things was started --this social networking site allows people to post a list of the things they want to do in life and receive encouragement from others who share their goals.

So I was looking at 43 Things because I was curious how many other people wanted to stop watching TV. However, when doing a search on "TV," the most frequently cited wish is not to stop watching TV--quite the opposite! Here are the most-cited, TV-related goals:

• 306 people want to "be on TV"
• 95 people say "watch TV"
• 51 people say "watch more TV"
  
• 45 people say "turn off the TV"

Another thing I learned--the primary investor in 43 Things is Amazon. Yes, it's old news, but it was news to me. There was some conspiracy talk about 43 Things simply being a cover for Amazon, since it was started by an ex-employee. However, it's not like Amazon would get more secret marketing info about people's hopes and dreams than what's already publicly available on 43Things.

Surprisingly, though, there are no Amazon links on these pages, but there are from Google. I have no problem with the idea of advertising, in general. If a company sees that I'm interested in something based on my email, the website I am browsing, or my search patterns and is willing to pay for the content I'm viewing by showing me a few ads, woo-hoo!

Still, I'm not planning on posting my goals to 43 Things. It's going to be hard enough to write this blog and not watch TV--I can't be expected to maintain 41 others goals.