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Gen Y has often been characterized as a “generation of multitaskers” inspiring debate over whether this helps or hurts productivity as well as over the word multitasking. Neuroscientists argue that nobody can simultaneously complete several tasks at the same time vs. just switching from one task to the other. We can hypothesize about a generation that has grown up with the internet might indeed be faster at task switching or even that their brain development may be impacted by using technology allowing them to “multitask” more efficiently than older generations.

A new small study from the folks at Lexis Nexis found that “Gen Y workers (those under 30) spend significantly more time online and juggle more activities than their Baby Boomer coworkers (those over 45).” Not surprising. The study also found:

Gen Y employees spend almost twice as much time as older workers on social networking sites, news sites, and blogs. Sixty-two percent of under-30 workers access social networking sites from the office and 39 percent report playing online games, compared in both cases to only 14 percent of boomers.

The debate begins around whether this is helping or hurting productivity. Like most issues, I don’t think there is an easy yes or no answer but lots of gray area. If it’s a way to take a break and relieve stress (stopping to play a quick game), then it could help productivity. If the employee is playing World of Warcraft all day instead of working, well….As for social networking sites, news sites and blogs, I would argue that for some jobs — sales, marketing, media — networking, discovering new information from your friends and other sources could potentially help productivity. Then again, if you’re spending four hours on Facebook looking at your friends’ party pics, taking personality quizzes and listing 25 things….not so much. There’s also the matter of prioritizing, recognizing when is a good time to be social networking/blog surfing and knowing when you should focus on meeting more pressing objectives. It reminds me of when parents ask me for a specific recommendation on number of hours their child should spend at a computer, aka “screen time.” I always tell them, moderation is key, and it depends on what they’re doing. Same advice could be given to managers, no?

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Categorized under: Collegians, Web

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