Study Finds Instant Messaging Helps Productivity 149
MojoKid writes "Researchers at Ohio State University and the University of California, Irvine conducted a telephone study by
randomly surveying individuals employed full-time who use computers in an office environment at least five hours per week. They netted 912 respondents, of which 29.8 percent claimed to use IM in the workplace 'to keep connected with coworkers and clients.'
Neither occupation, education, gender, nor age seem to have an impact on whether
an individual is an IM user or not. The study theorizes that using IM enables individuals to 'flag their availability.' Doing so can limit when IM interruptions occur. Even if an IM interruption comes when it is not necessarily convenient to the recipient, it is 'often socially acceptable' to ignore an incoming message or respond with a terse reply stating that the recipient is too busy at the moment to properly respond." Also another study recently found that water is wet, and a third study found that most studies waste money.
Oops (Score:5, Funny)
I appear to be in the wrong room.
And in other news study finds fat people healthy (Score:2, Funny)
Sorta reminds me of (Score:2, Funny)
those old online polls that showed a percentage of people did not participate in online polls, hey look,
http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=401 [slashdot.org] and 2521 people don't vote
u r rite! (Score:5, Funny)
So while you may dismiss this as the painfully obvious, at least I'll have something to shut down the baseless claims that a lot of good useful tools today "make us stupid." It's still possible for something to make us both more productive and stupid but at least there's some evidence supporting instant messaging in the workplace.
i no xactly wat u meen! pholks sa i'm stewpid for it an 4 posteing on sashdot! i haf to go bac and rite my web pag
Slashdot increases productivity (Score:2, Funny)
Re:u r rite! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Not So Obvious to Many in Corporate America (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Doesn't follow. (Score:3, Funny)
But of course, all productivity is negated through Slashdot. So whatever.
Re:Short answers drive me nuts (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Not So Obvious to Many in Corporate America (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Doesn't follow. (Score:3, Funny)
Which would be my point: Who's productivity does IM help?
While my not using IM may hinder your productivity, not using it helps mine. Anyone who needs me can send email and I'll get back to you when I can, or, if really important, call or stop by.
Seriously, unless you're choking on a pretzel or on fire, my time is more important than yours (generically, yours) - /. doesn't read itself you know. :-)