I've been thinking a lot lately about the kinds of companies that are taking the world by storm and are garnering ten-digit valuations. There's Facebook – where people put up pictures, status messages, and share links. There's Groupon, where people share coupons to buy stuff they probably don't really need. There's Zynga, the incredibly popular Facebook-based gaming site. And Twitter, where people tweet status messages (99.99999% of them utterly banal) to their followers.

The thing that strikes me is how useless all these sites are. I mean, sure, they are useful in the abstract sense. I've got over 4,000 followers on Twitter, and I'm grateful that it exists. And I enjoy putting updates on my Facebook page.

But……..does anyone actually work anymore? Because between all the concerts, movies, DVDs, iPhone apps, web sites, and all the rest of it, it seems that humanity is marching lockstep toward a life of sedentary idleness. I realize not all of us need to be farmers, but perhaps Devo was right about where we're all heading. Intellectual curiousity and industry seem to be going bye-bye. In its stead are Angry Birds and iFart.