I find this visualization to be somewhat hilarious because, no matter how much we don’t want to admit it, it is so unbelievably true. BUT, I think that it is really lacking in giving an all around explanation of what some of these metrics mean. Looking at it, I kind of feel like the entire graph is some inside joke between a few people; not really an information visualization. I can make the connection that all of the mentioned forms of social media are more distracting than any actual kind of work, yet I don’t really understand the comments on the side of the pyramid. I guess that they are short descriptions of what is included in each section of the pyramid itself but I think this visualization would be more effective if that was clearer. The hierarchy inside of the pyramid itself is very well organized and any self-respecting internet crazed human would understand the meaning behind each position within each type of social media.

The downside of such a representation is the fact that to truly understand each visualization individually, one would need to use all of them. It isn’t possible to understand how each kind of twitter notification impacts a person unless they use it and have experienced all of them. A data visualization is supposed to be easily understood and accepted by every viewer, that is what makes the information data. I find that a lot of the information contained in this visualization is opinion and one person’s experiences and feelings towards each type of social media. To some viewer, getting a message on twitter may be more important than getting a new follower; or a new voicemail may be more important than anything happening on a iPhone (which I find highly unlikely, but hey, it is a possibility). A lot of this visualization falls under where people’s priorities are and how each social media outlet is used in their daily lives. While the visualization itself is cute and clever, I think that the kind of data it is displaying is not really something that can be quantified effectively. (The food pyramid idea was really cute though, and a very nice try).