Internet Productivity.

The Internet is a great tool for increasing productivity but it is also very good at causing a decrease in productivity. It speeds up peoples ability to communicate, to collaborate and to complete simple tasks. It however is also a very powerful entertainment system. I know that myself and many of my friends find it difficult to focus when we are working on various projects on the computer. We easily get distracted by the ability to just go on the Internet and have a good time. There have been many articles and studies done on whether or not the Internet has led to an increase in productivity. There has not been a conclusive finding yet though. There are many variables to consider in such a study and this is what makes the question of is the Internet conducive to productivity a difficult question.

I looked for an article on measuring productivity on-line and found this one that examines the ways in which it is hard to study the effects of Information Technology. The main problems with trying to measure productivity concerning the Internet is that you cannot use the traditional methods of measuring productivity. The improvements brought on by Information Technology are often hard to calculate. Since productivity is difficult to measure and there are many variables concerning it, it is often difficult to tell when results are relevant. There may also be a time difference between when the technology is actually implemented and when productivity begins to improve making it difficult to calculate the improvement. The systems can also be improperly implemented or not used at all and this will lead to a lack of improvement in productivity.

In my opinion I feel that the Internet has improved productivity in many regards but we need to be careful about how we spend our time on the web because it is so easy to get distracted.