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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday May 30 2019, @08:53AM   Printer-friendly
from the productivity dept.

The latest expansion of optic fiber broadband creates conditions for parallel expansion of mobile broadband. A study argues that the negative effect is mainly due to mobile broadband. The argument is supported by the fact that the effect does not exist in the countryside, where mobile broadband has poor coverage.

"Of course, it's difficult to believe that the internet is negative for companies—and we don't think that is the case: The internet and broadband are probably good for companies. What we found is rather that the latest developments in technology have a negative side effect on productivity, and it's important to highlight this trend and investigate it further," says Martin Nordin, associate professor in labor market economics and one of the authors of the study.

"We saw that the negative effect first appeared in 2011. As this coincided with the start of the 4G network expansion, there is reason to believe that the effect is connected to mobile broadband. When an area gets optic fiber, it can be assumed that 4G transmission masts for mobile broadband are also set up," continues Martin Nordin.

The negative productivity effect is greater for companies whose employees mix private and job-related internet use. "If it's correct that the effect is due to mobile broadband, the effect is not only linked to what happens at work. Internet use outside work also has an effect," says Martin Nordin.

Psychologists have shown that new media habits in combination with smartphones mean a constant stimulation of our social reward system. It has been claimed that smartphones affect sleep patterns, depression, suicide risks among young people, performance at school and accident risks.

"Stating that smartphones have negative effects isn't controversial. Research shows that we are disturbed every 12 minutes by our smartphones, for example. What is new about our study is that we investigate if there could be negative effects on companies' finances," says Martin Nordin.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Thursday May 30 2019, @12:30PM (3 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Thursday May 30 2019, @12:30PM (#849265) Journal

    Never mind the main article. I find "Research shows that we are disturbed every 12 minutes" the most interesting part.

    I don't use social media much. I am constantly interrupted by family members who do. No, they aren't interrupting me with the social media, because I don't log into Facebook more often than once a week. It's more like that social media has programmed them to accept interruptions every few minutes, and so they think nothing of interrupting others.

    I ran a little experiment one evening. I tried to play a timed game that lasts 3 minutes. In the space of an hour, I was able to finish just one game. For every other game I started, I had to leave before time was up to deal with whatever the family wanted now. Soon as I was done with that, I started a new game. Fortunately, not every evening is that bad.

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  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:21PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:21PM (#849399)

    For your phone at least, just use this Nokia feature [microsoft.com] to set your phone to a silent profile for 15 minutes on-demand. Of course, I got a new phone since then that doesn't offer that, which means I'll turn my phone to silent for an ad-hoc meeting and then hope I remember to turn it back on after that. I also can't play snake on the new one, you filthy co-casual.

  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday May 31 2019, @02:01PM (1 child)

    by urza9814 (3954) on Friday May 31 2019, @02:01PM (#849791) Journal

    You just need to just stop responding so quickly. I've trained those who contact me to expect replies to take up to a week :)

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday June 05 2019, @08:41PM

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Wednesday June 05 2019, @08:41PM (#851925) Journal

      Responding to your post a week later, I have this to say:

      The physical access that family members enjoy makes that tactic unworkable.