Here’s an interesting post from ReadWriteWeb

Shocking News: Scientists Say Workplace Social Networking Increases Productivity!

Highlights:

“Can you believe that using social networking sites at work can increase your workplace productivity? A new study just published by Australian scientists found that taking time to visit websites of personal interest, including news sites and YouTube, provided workers a mental break that ultimately increased their ability to concentrate and was correlated with a 9% increase in total productivity.”

“The study was performed by researchers at Australia’s University of Melbourne and coined the phrase “workplace Internet leisure browsing,” or WILB.”

“People who do surf the Internet for fun at work – within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office – are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t,” said Dr Brent Coker, from the Melbourne Department of Management and Marketing. Got that? You can spend as much as 20% of your time at work dorking around on the internet and still end up 9% more productive than people who don’t!”

What this study says to us is that the social web is so incredibly powerful that even people who don’t know how to use it find themselves made 9% more productive because of it – on accident.”

“However, Coker said the study looked at people who browsed in moderation, or were on the Internet for less than 20 percent of their total time in the office. “Those who behave with Internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without,” he said.”