I was just about to give up my daily search for hidden value when a Survey request popped into my e-mail inbox. Normally, I would tag such an e-mail as "spam" and flush it away but this happened to be my monthly invitation to participate in a Harris Poll Survey. I must be in some special class of grumpy old men that some merchant wants to "friend" because on two previous survey requests they backed away soon as I reported my gender and age. Today's Survey not only continued well past that point but got into such areas as my race, annual family income, married, single or divorced...well you get the picture.
This Survey asked about purchases of commodity items I may have made in April, May, and June of this year. It covered everything from household appliances to auto accessories. Even included items for gardening and do-it-yourself projects. I went through at lest four of these categorical lists, Each had at least 20 specific items. With much embarrassment, I had to check "Did not purchase any of these" before I hit pay dirt on the last list. It covered gardening and outdoor items. I was just about to check the "Did not purchase..." box when I spotted something that counted: "preenial/annual plants". I remembered that I had purchased two tomatoe plants from the nearby big box store. Don't these qualify as "preenial plants" I asked myself and happily checked that box.
It worked!. That response coaxed out a host of new questions: Was this a perennial or annual plant? Was this perennial plant a flower or a vegetable? And so it went til they popped the final question of the series: How much did you pay? Where did you purchase them? It was like hitting the jackpot on the slots! Each answer triggered two or more new questions. Finally, they closed the Survey part and asked me if I cared to answer a few questions about my "experience" with taking the survey. They posed these questions in a manner that reminded me of a neophyte nurse preparing you for an injection...afraid that you will scream out in pain and that will finish her career. So I responded to: How satisfied are you that our questions were easy to understand and to complete? Were the questions interesting? And so on.
By now you are ready to ask me: "Where was the hidden value?" That is what I am still trying to figure out.
The very last question in this part of the Survey was "Did you find this survey valuable?"
I kid you not!
Pick 102 - Generation Alpha
Screen technologies are the base of everything that characterizes Generation Alpha and truly distinguishes them from every other generati...
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