Listen up. Do I have your attention? Since you’re already halfway through this third sentence may I just say THANK YOU in a big way for giving 20/20 a few moments of your most precious possession: Time.

I completely understand your dilemma. It plagues me as well. Information and demands and details and news and just plain life (both work and hearth) keep coming at you from all angles. Where once you basically did your gig and did your “thing” with your loved ones, and perhaps read a newspaper or book and hit or kicked a ball on the weekend, now, suddenly the life-game has changed.

I’ve actually covered this “time” issue before. Last time ’round it was websites and the Internet and this fledgling buddy called FaceSomething taking over from another time grabber called WhySpace or something like that. But now, just listing the social-cyber pirates by name would take more than all of the words in this Expo issue.

You are under attention attack. Scary, right? But satisfying. Everybody wants your attention and all of those bodies are hoping those messages can truly take seed and grow in glorious importance.

An odd thing happened sparking my thoughts on all of this energy being expended winning time from everyone’s lives. A few weeks ago I received an e-mail press release and event invitation concerning a new eyewear collection branded with the names of an incredibly high profile celebrity family available through a big box opti-chain. A small print story was put in the works but as is the case these days, word went out on 2020mag Facebook and Twitter. By day’s end those posts had logged record interactive responses and even a few posts on OTHER social networks to the effect that 20/20 had flooded the Internet with hype about this particular collection. It wasn’t hype. It was news. And it was news that needs to be assimilated in order for it to be of value as it regards YOUR position in the optical arena.

Don’t be angered by it or alienated by it or disgusted by its details. There is value to how you perceive it and use it to impact your professional life. In some way, shape or form your customer is going to find out about this bit of news, and isn’t it grand that you know about it and have TIME to formulate your opinion?

That’s time well-spent. Now go spend some time at Expo if this is where you’re reading this 20/20. And if you aren’t at the trade show, itself one of the oldest form of info-exchanges, go spend some time with your family and perhaps leave a few minutes to read the rest of this issue. I personally appreciate your time here.  

James J. Spina
Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]