“We lived in farms, then we lived in cities, and now we're gonna live on the internet!” I am sure you are aware of this quote; however, I am not sure whether we have realized the implications of this.
I am sure that most of us get frustrated if we do not have access to the social networking sites for a few days and I guess a majority of them would be women.
If Google ever takes a survey of who uses their chats most during the day, I believe, they would come up with an analysis that women use the chat windows more frequently when compared to men and for prolonged periods of time. Their active chat windows never cease to come down, whereas I observed that the active chat windows of guys are a few. For your record, I have not tried to peep into someone’s chat window. These observations are based on the casual glance of the screens of my colleagues as I walk past them.
What is the impact of these in the work place? You might think that it makes women concentrate less on the official work because of the online distractions. True. To some extent it has the effect of distracting them from their official work. But I cannot imagine a situation in which the internet access is blocked. It would frustrate them more and would make them less efficient.
Though the thoughts expressed above are gender neutral, I have focused on women as its impact would be more for the other gender, based on my experience. What’s your view on this?
11 comments:
there are so many important aspects which u hv missed in ur post...
Many researches show that women are more sincere, dedicated and productive at work than men...and there are less distractions for women at work place than for men (even if ur hypothesis of chatting is included)...
You might have observed that being active on chat windows for women are more frequent than men. But what you failed to notice is that the probability of other person on chat being a man is 0.9 ! So it would neutralize the survey taken by Google...
And the least you can do for women is atleast dont mention the cliche 'thoughts above are meant to be gender neutral'! If you have an opinion bout something then why use these shields !
I disagree with you on the gender point, even guys are so much addicted to chatting and social networking. Frankly speaking now a days am getting too much irritated with these social networking sites, leave the official front, i think it has more impact on personal front. Now a days ppl tend to avoid/ignore ppl who are around them like husband/wife etc and give much more importance to virtual friends. Sure these virtual friends never gonna come with us or support us when we are in need. I think these social networking sites are ok if u use it for relaxation.
@Pallavi - I just said that its merely a distraction, never mentioned that it reduces the quality of their work. In fact the quality is better when they have access to internet. And this article should be taken in a much more sportive way. The gender neutral part was from my heart, however i wrote specifically about women bcas, i felt, they are in the majority.
Chk this
http://gigaom.com/2010/03/04/who-uses-social-media-more-men-or-women/
and i did take it sportingly...else wouldn't hv commented :) i hope u take the comments also sportingly...
@Honey - True, we all feel like fish out of water if we do not have access to internet in general and SN / chat in particular. We need to come out of this chronic net addiction, but what is the way out, we seem to be moving towards it rather than away from it.
@Pallavi - Yes i did...
check this - http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIBG/2011/01/13&PageLabel=5&EntityId=Ar00500&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
I agree. Net additction is a serious hazard of these times. As Honey rightly said, it has reached a point where people forget to communicate with their near and dear ones. They start living more in virtual than real world. I would think more physical or real work (non-computer), reading physical books and putting a cap on other activities would help a lot.
I remember the days when ppl used to say that kids are addicted to reading story books and dont go out to play..Today also the cribs remain the same..just that computer/net has replaced books and books have replaced playing/physical activity.. these arguments were there even when ppl started using excessive tv instead of spending time with frnds n family... I feel this is inevitable and this is how societies evolve with technology...and the pace at which life is going, I feel these social networking sites are only helping us stay connected with our friends and families within our constraints of time & money...
We all have herd mentality, we just follow others when it comes to either SN or chats or whatever. In life everything is necessary, but there is a fine line between using it and getting addicted to it. It depends on how you look at it. I am sure opinion would vary on this. We just need to make our own judgement and ensure that it does not affect his personal life. We all know that man is a social animal, but how social he should be is left to the discretion of the individual. Btw the latest news is that the social network rules the golden globe....
My opinion is as follows. When I have noticed personally my european counterpart [ doesnot matter on the gender ] they are also provided with all the internet/chat facilities as we have in chennai , it is just that they donot use it. For that matter , they even donot use the landline/IP Phone to call their family , instead use their mobile phones for their personal call. I see this as just the Attitude of the indians, rest of the world in the same company you can see we indians exploite the company resourses. Needless to add, there are some service companies like wipro,infy donot allow their employees for any internet access and i donot see any productivity problem there.
hmm...true...do i know u?
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