Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Back when it first began, we ripped the Tampa Bay Business Journal weekly survey for not disclosing all the numbers.  TBBJ Editor Alexis Muellner puts the polls together and summarizes the results. He wrote in to say they were new at this, and he gave us the numbers.  Since then, all has been well. Er, until now.

A recent survey asked what you do with your downtime after work (not the weekend). If you read the headline and either version of the story (early one or late with comments) you’d think most of us exercise or spend time with family. Awesome, wholesome activities. But check out the flawed answers. The biggest percentage of answers was for “exercise or watch sports.” Now, if you watch sports on TV, this is the answer you would pick. Why? Look at the other answers – your choice is not just “watch TV”, but they chose individual shows - Lost, American Idol, Apprentice, Survivor. Let’s see, I don’t watch that, that, that, or that. Just sports. Click. So I wonder how many of the 111 play sports and exercise, and how many of them just watch sports.

Also, the numbers don’t add up. Again according to the article: 111 of 268 = 30%.  And 77/268=20%  That math does not work.  I assume the total was a typo, and they got about 388 respondents. Now, add the answers for the TV shows together, and you get more than the “exercise” response. They even state in the article there were 119 TV watchers, which is more than the 111 exercisers (and sport watchers). So the headline and gist of the story is misleading at best.

Hey – even though these things are very unscientific, I like these TBBJ polls. But why on earth would they write an ambiguous article like this? We all know people here are LAZY. And I want to know the real figures. So, based on the final voting tally, here is my best guess:

After work, at least 30% (119) watch TV. It’s possible that 28% (111) of you exercise, but I’d guess a significant portion of those “watch” rather than play sports. 20% (81) read something (most of these read fiction). It’s certainly believable that 19% (77) hang with the family.

So, no – most of us don’t work out, and second most don’t spend time with family. Most of us watch CRAPTV, and least of us spend time with family.

If it were my headline, well, look above.

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