Internet

In possible preparation for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, China has begun to block many sites likeTwitter, Flickr, Blogger and YouTube.

A University of Melbourne study found that workers who engage in ‘Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing’ (WILB) are more productive than those who don’t. “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,” the author says. This is because “short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days work, and as a result, increased productivity.”

ARSTechnica reports on a recent USDA study:
"Both urban and rural Internet use have soared in the US over the last few years, but some new number-crunching from the US Department of Agriculture puts a number on the urban/rural gap: 9.3 percent. 72.6 percent of urban Americans use the Internet somewhere (though not necessarily at home), but among rural residents that number falls to 63.3 percent."

Contrary to the opinions of many parents, time spent online is important for teenage social and technological skill development, according to a new study from the MacArthur Foundation. This ethnographic study interviewed over 800 teens and parents about digital media use and logged over 5000 media use observation hours. The researchers found that teens use digital media for two primary reasons: friendship-driven activities and interest-driven activities.