The hidden cost of Gangnam Style
What humanity could achieve if it weren’t galloping in front of computer screens
THE loony music video “Gangnam Style”
surpassed two billion views on YouTube this week, making it the most
watched clip of all time. At 4:12 minutes, that equates to more than
140m hours, or more than 16,000 years. What other achievements were
forgone in the time spent watching a sideways shuffle and air lasso? It
took 50m man-hours to complete the “supercarrier” USS Gerald Ford
last year. Had people not been watching PSY—the South Korean pop star
who released the song in July 2012—they could have constructed three
such ships. Alternatively they could have built more than four Great
Pyramids of Giza, or another Wikipedia, or six Burj Khalifas in Dubai
(the world’s tallest building). The song’s nearest rival is Justin
Bieber’s “Baby”, at a paltry one billion views. The opportunity cost of
watching PSY’s frivolity is huge, but humanity has at least been
entertained.
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