The Department of Labor estimates that 6 billion work hours are missed from mid-August to mid-September each year due to the extra scrolling necessary on social media to get past back-to-school photos, potentially crippling the American economy.
People have routinely called in sick or been late to work as it has taken too long to scroll through their Facebook feeds to important things instead of back-to-school photos of kids they don’t care about. Likewise, though, there has been a sharp decrease in people arguing in Internet comments.
“So many parents post pictures of their kids on the first day of school,” Karen Applebaum, 43, said. “I don’t think they realize that people are going to end up scrolling through their timeline so fast that they might miss something really important – something where they can educate people in the comments.”
DOL expects productivity and Internet fighting to pick up again dramatically in October.