Wasting Time on the Internet Makes You a Better Worker
All Americans spend 90% of their time at work screwing around on the internet. This is why America's so great! According to science, browsing the internet for fun makes you a better worker.
Here's what researchers from the National University of Singapore did to prove that reading Gawker on your lunch break is the sure path to business success, according to the Wall Street Journal:
they assigned 96 undergraduate management students into one of three groups-a control group, a "rest-break" group and a Web-surfing group. All subjects spent 20 minutes highlighting as many letter e's as they could find in a sample text. For the next 10 minutes, the control group was assigned another simple task; members of the rest-break group could do whatever they pleased, except surf the Internet; and the third group could browse the Web. Afterward, all of the subjects spent another 10 minutes highlighting more letters.
The people who spent time surfing the web "were significantly more productive and effective" than the other two groups. Researchers believe that people get a productive boost because surfing the web is enjoyable and "rejuvenating." But if you're reading Perez Hilton it boosts productivity in a different way: By instilling in the reader a dark horror that can only be sated by a frenzy of work.
Yet another important addition to my forthcoming Malcolm Gladwell-esque pop psychology book: Stuff We Love Doing That Science Conveniently Says Is Good For Us.
