The first problem a knowledge worker will run into while working on the Internet is information overload. Computers are working faster and faster today, but the information processing capacity of the human brain has not undergone any discernible technological upgrade. Putting keywords into any standard search engine will return you with a minimum of 100,000 matches (and that's really understating it). However you might narrow down your searches, you are still left with a rather overwhelming number of entries. Just reading those entries kills time.
The mass of information that needs to be read and sifted through before reaching the proper objective eats time like anything. Skilled workers lose less time than the relatively unskilled, but information overload drags you down every day and everywhere. It is true that search engines are continually coming up with new algorithms to provide the most relevant information at the top of the list, but the task is daunting and the results not always what you want.
The Internet as a Distraction
"The further off from England the nearer is to France—/Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance." —Lewis Carroll
Coupled with Internet searches for information are the Internet entertainment outlets and marketplaces. When you can access both work and pleasure in the same place, distraction becomes common. Diverting your attention away from your work leads to problems that can cause severe effects on your job and career.
Internet addiction is a phenomenon of the modern technological age that does not affect only workers but Internet users in general. Internet addiction generally takes into account "cybersexual addiction, cyber relationship addiction, net compulsions, information overload, and addiction to interactive computer games (Young et al., 1999)" (Wieland, 153). Employees prone to Internet addiction spend work time surfing the Internet (including online auctions, shopping, and pornography).
Internet Abuse is Costly
When employees use paid work time and equipment for personal work on the Internet we call that Internet abuse. For quite some time, employers have developed tools to tackle this issue, but actually tackling it is a different matter. In 2001, Websense, Inc., published in M2 Presswire that Internet misuse is costing UK businesses £9.6 billion a year in lost productivity. In 2002, it announced that workplace web abuse costs corporate America $85 billion in lost productivity (published in Business Wire, 11/12/2002). In 2005, Websense, Inc., warned in PR Newswire that $178 billion in employee productivity is lost annually in the U.S. But Websense sells solutions to Internet abuse, and their research is... well, their research.
Internet Abuse is Not Such a Big Problem
The reality is better reflected in independent research done by Mirchandni and Motwani published in the SAM Advanced Management Journal 2003:
"Most companies already have the means to track the Internet usage of their employees but choose not to do so because of the effort involved. Some practitioners we interviewed estimated the average cost of Internet abuse to their company (in terms of lost productivity) did not exceed the annual salary of one employee. Therefore, it may not be cost justifiable to add a new staff member to the IS department simply to monitor and eliminate the abuse."This does not mean that Internet abuse does not exist. It only means that the workplace has sufficient means and methods to contain the problem and reduce it to insignificance.
Whatever be the uses and abuses of the Internet, neither the employee nor the employer in the techie world can do without it. The Internet is the new lifeline of a techie.
Works Cited
Mirchandani, Dinesh, and Jaideep Motwani. "Reducing Internet Abuse in the Workplace." SAM Advanced Management Journal 68.1 (2003): 22+.
Wieland, Diane M. "Computer Addiction: Implications for Nursing Psychotherapy Practice." Perspectives in Psychiatric Care 41.4 (2005): 153+.
