A fish out of water

“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?