Cyberloafing Really an Epidemic

Cyberloafing Really an Epidemic The CBS St. Louis local news headline was as shocking as it was implausible Study Americans Spend Up To 80 Percent Of Work Time Cyberloafing (sic). On one interpretation, so was the ambiguous statistical claim within the CBS report According to Newswise, the average worker spends 60 to 80 percent of his or her time at the office on the netz, engaging in tasks that have notlagehing to do with their jobs. (How it is ambiguous and therefore sensationalistic is explained below.) Thats hard to believe.Thankfully, theres no need to believe it.The CBS story garbled and sensationalized what the Newswise piece actually reported In fact, Newswise reported, Between 60 and 80 percent of peoples time on the Internet at work has nothing to do with work. (Italics mine.)Thats the statistic cited on the basis of research done by Joseph Ugrin, assistant professor of accounting at Kan sas State University, and John Pearson, associate professor of management at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale (in The Effects of Sanctions and Stigmas on Cyberloafing, published in the May 2012 issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior).At vs. As WorkApparently, sloppy writing at CBS St Louis transformed between 60 and 80 percent of the time that people spend on the Internet at work into between 60 and 80 percent of the time that people spend at work (period).Whats more, the reported 60 to 80 percent of the time spent at work does not, as it stands, mean 60 to 80 percent of the time spent as work, since many workers have their lunch, including authorized cyberloafing-breaks if they have lunch at their desks, and other authorized coffee-spiked breaks at work.If such authorized cyberlunch-and-cybercoffee-break-loafs are subtracted from the total cyberloafing time, the residual true, unauthorized cyberloafing will be a smaller percentage of the work day. But if lunch a nd coffee breaks without computer use are subtracted from the work day, the percentage of true cyberloafing as a proportion of the recalculated shorter work day will increase. So, feeling confused (if not shocked) by the CBS report is understandable.If the sensible interpretation of the research as reporting the percentage of Internet time at and as work spent cyberloafing is adopted, the percentage of time spent cyberloafing this way may be quite smalland certainly vastly smaller than the 60-80% of the total work-day figure the CBS article reported (especially since Americans includes the multitude of workers who do not sit in front of a computer for their entire workday, if they use one at all).That vs. WhichLook at the CBS quote again According to Newswise, the average worker spends 60 to 80 percent of his or her time at the office on the Internet, engaging in tasks that have nothing to do with their jobs. Does that meanAccording to Newswise, the average worker spends 60 to 80 pe rcent of his or her time at the office on the Internet, during which time (s)he is engaging in tasks that have nothing to do with his or her job?According to Newswise, the average worker spends 60 to 80 percent of his or her office time that is spent on the Internet engaging in tasks that have nothing to do with his or her job?If, in fact, 100% of a workers office time is spent on the Internet, office time that is spent on the Internet becomes, and should be expressed as, office time, which is spent on the Internet (which, in being unrestricted designates all office time, and not merely the portion of it spent on the Net).Worker vs. PeopleSetting aside what the actual research claims, the Newswise report also didnt go as far as the CBS summary of it, in terms of identifying who was surveyed. CBS St. Louis reported that the average worker spends 60 to 80 percent of his or her time at the office on the Internet, whereas the Newswise report stated only that between 60 and 80 percent of peoples time on the Internet at work has nothing to do with work. (Italics mine.)Thats people, not just workers. Imagine, for example, surveying a university careers office and the use of the battery of computers made available at work, but not as work, to students (presumably merely looking for workor does that count for them or anyone else as work?).Of course, if all the people surveyed were employees being surveyed, not about their Internet behavior in general but, instead, specifically about their workplace and work-time Internet behavior (which is mucksmuschenstill narrower than what the CBS writer explicitly assumed), at least one (less) shocking statistical claim would standthe vast majority of workers indeed are cyberloafing up to 80% of their Internet time at (and presumably as) work.But suppose the Newswise report also got it wrong Suppose the population sample was not limited to workers, but, instead, also included some other cyber-surfing groupfor example, students (uni versity, college, high school, etc.), possibly students in those aforementioned career counseling offices, or maybe in no office at all.After all, one thing that is eternally true of students is that they spend an awful lot of time not studying and not in offices, spending much of it loafingwhich, these days, means on Facebook.Yes, many students also work, but presumably a well-designed research study would classify students who are working as workers, or at least distinguish their work-time cyberloafing percentages from their non-work time cyberloafing stats.If studentsas students and students onlywere included in the survey, then, of course, huge percentages (probably 100% in fruchtwein instances) of their time spent online would not be work-related, thus inflating the final data for cyberloafing at, as or even about (looking for) work online. Were their part-time job habits queried, those students would have to be recategorized as workers, to avoid category confusion and muddying .Cyberloafing at CBS?Now, I dont know whether the garbled CBS St. Louis report can be attributed to any kind of cyberloafing. Actually, I seriously doubt that.Its more likely to have resulted from slicing the information loaf the wrong way.Update Since the publication of this article, the headline of the CBS St. Louis article has been changed from Study Americans Spend Up To 80 Percent Of Work Time Cyberloafing to Study Americans Spend Up To 80 Percent Of Internet Work Time Cyberloafing, In an apparent, but unsuccessful attempt to correct the original garbled misinterpretation, the article has been re-written to read like this According to Newswise, the average worker spends 60 to 80 percent of his or her time Internet time at the office engaging in tasks that have nothing to do with their jobs.____________________Next What the study really said and its prescriptions and implications for cyberloafing management