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Study Proves Web Surfing Increases Productivity at Work

By Joseph D. Lienjdlien. Tuesday, August 23, 2011 5:40:06 AM

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Web Browsing Boosts Productivity

Another way that Opera can improve your productivity: it turns out that surfing your favorite websites at work can boost your performance!


A new study called "Impact of Cyberloafing on Psychological Engagement," by Don J.Q. Chen and Vivien K.G Lim of the National University of Singapore, was presented last week in San Antonio, Texas, at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, an association of management scholars.

This test involved three groups of people who were tasked to highlight as many letter "e"s as they could in some text. After 20 minutes, the first group was assigned to another simple task. The second got to do anything they wanted except browse the Web, and the third could only browse the web.

The findings are very interesting. It turns out that of the three groups, the web-surfers were significantly more effective at their assigned tasks than the other groups, and they also repeated lower levels of mental exhaustion and boredom.

"Browsing the Internet serves an important restorative function," the authors said. A second study, which surveyed 191 adults, found similar results.

Apparently web surfing offers a pleasurable break that has rejuvenating qualities. Perhaps the next time your company's management proposes more restrictions on web access, they could be pointed towards this study!

Google Purchases Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion

Comments

ErikshaktiIIIgta Wednesday, August 24, 2011 1:25:45 AM

jester lol good news, great, thats also true when stuying, it realy is... thanks for letting us know, now I bet they'd be using a speedy browser like Opera for this

party hope this is no joke like the IQ test, I think is true though

wangtong106 Wednesday, August 24, 2011 3:42:58 PM

I doubt how well the performance of highlighting 'e' can be translated into other tasks in the working environment.

moonical Thursday, August 25, 2011 5:46:40 AM

Originally posted by wangtong106:

I doubt how well the performance of highlighting 'e' can be translated into other tasks in the working environment.



Wang, consider that you have to be motivated to be willing to highlight the letter 'e' (which is the most common letter used in the English language I believe). The speed at which you highlight the letter 'e' can be attributed to fatigue, both mental and physical (for those of us that use a keyboard a lot, we know we have to take periodic breaks).

Recognition is also important. If a mind is stimulated, it will recognize the objective of any task and perform at a higher level. A repetitive task such as highlighting the letter 'e' represents the average workers day. When tasks are repetitive, the human mind becomes complacent and goes on auto-pilot. By allowing additional stimuli, companies can keep their employees minds stimulated, which translates into better performance.

Thus, highlighting the letter 'e' merely represents a repetitive task that workers perform daily at their jobs. There does need to be more study, such as an 8 hour time block to represent the work day, to determine the real effectiveness of this item.

This is why companies that prefer innovation allow more employee freedom while on the job, mental stimulation produces positive results.

Michael Carterrabmag Monday, August 29, 2011 2:04:39 AM

I would just write a macro to search and highlight all the e's for me.

I do this often for boring, redundant jobs which allows me the freedom and energy to use my mind for the more important and challenging tasks!

Cutting Spoonhellspork Tuesday, August 30, 2011 1:53:52 AM

Originally posted by rabmag:

I would just write a macro to search and highlight all the e's for me.


....and that's why the job market will continue it's downward spiral. Not enough jobs that actually require human labor, can't get around that fact unless you guys feel like building some pyramids over the weekend.whistle

As to the article subject, it reminds me of this: http://literallyunbelievable.org/ I recall there has been a rash of trollpapers released to cause mayhem with news agencies, but maybe the scientists feel that ten minutes on 4chan is better than five mins at the proverbial water cooler.

Osamuyi Okpameosamuyi2 Tuesday, September 20, 2011 4:46:26 AM

Great news. Thanks for the study

AnthonyTonabs Wednesday, November 16, 2011 3:06:11 PM

The Lord is always faithful to his people

dmitrijs Thursday, November 17, 2011 6:16:36 PM

Are you sure?

You used to have a couple of posts every week, but now almost 3 months have passed since this post! whistle bigsmile

David William Ruswazadruswaza Tuesday, November 22, 2011 12:47:53 PM

The corelation between fatigue, monotony and productivity at work need to be studied too. Sometimes surfing closes that gap, hence compromising the results of e's vis a vis surfing; the contribution of surfing to increased work-productivity not withstanding.

Orontes H. SolísDrakoDrakkonis Sunday, December 18, 2011 5:12:03 AM



AAAHOOOYYY, MR. LIENNNNN, WHEEEREEE ARRRE YOUUUUUU...!!!!!! left yikes confused right bigeyes

lucky dandyluckydandy Tuesday, January 10, 2012 6:44:19 AM

these i knw that God will not be silent in d present state of nigeria he will intervain and deliver us problem here and there the less priviledged are crying for help,God wil vendicate them .he help the israelite in bondage he will not leave us alone i knw this.

royzkahf Tuesday, January 17, 2012 5:47:47 PM

why......

Piotrpiotrmakowski Friday, February 10, 2012 8:53:55 PM

Love Google smilesmile

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