We know that a lot of you come to Neowin to check out the news and forum on our site while you are at work. Some of you might even feel a bit guilty about that. Well, according to a new study, you shouldn't. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, it suggests that web surfing at work might actually help employees be more productive, especially in comparison to other activities such as sending personal emails or phone calls.
The study, created by researchers at the National University of Singapore, used two groups of people. One was with 96 college students and the other was with 191 adults. Those two groups were each split up into three sub-groups. All three groups were assigned a task to complete and then were given some time off from that task. One sub-group, the control group, was given another task while the second group could do whatever they wanted except surf the Internet. The third group was allowed to use their web browser. Finally, the three groups returned to the original task.
The study showed that the group of people that was allowed to surf the net was more productive at the task than the other two groups. The web surfers also had lower levels of boredom. The researchers suggest that employers should allow their employees to have a limited amount of time at work to surf the net. At the same time, other Internet activities such as sending personal emails should be limited at work.
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