The Procrastination Economy. Ethan Tussey
a media-snacking reward system.
Yvonne Jewkes’s research on prison inmates shows that when media access is used as a reward, it helps to normalize the rules and regulations of the institution.35 As with any incentive system, the group that controls the object of desire, such as access to media content, can require certain behaviors from the people who want the object. The research on prisoners also shows that media content is essential to a person’s perception of him- or herself. Jewkes argues that within strict institutions, media content provides people with essential tools to reclaim their identities, mark time, and generally survive day-to-day stresses. Hopefully, most work environments are not as damaging to personal agency as prison is, although the restriction of media content in some workplaces may be similar. Unlike in prison, mobile-device viewing in the workplace, during break times, can be a negotiation between employee and employer. The employee agrees to abide by the structures of professionalism in exchange for some measure of freedom to engage in media consumption and, therefore, personal expression during his or her managed break times.
Break times are self-selected or scheduled moments during the day when employees are permitted to divert their minds from work to topics of their own interest. Despite the lack of federally mandated break times, several state governments and various unions have successfully instituted compensated break times for workers. These regulating bodies have argued that break times perform an important stress-relieving function.36 Researchers at the University of Melbourne demonstrated that employees who spent break time online were more productive than were employees who spent their break offline.37 Study coauthor Brent Coker explains that “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 day’s work, and as a result, increased productivity.”38 Another study by researchers at the University of Singapore compared media snacking to a “coffee or snack break,” as it provided pleasure and rejuvenation to employees.39 These findings show that media snacking is as restorative as other break time activities are.
Much like lunchtime media snacking, employees in the three companies were strategic in their planning of their media snack breaks. One employee would check to see what his favorite online personalities had scheduled during the day and would plan his break times accordingly. He used Twitter, for example, to see if a comedian would be hosting a live chat or to see if a new episode of a favorite web series would be posted. If there was no time-sensitive digital content, break times were filled with casual web surfing in short breaks throughout the day. Employees at the call center often returned to social media sites throughout the day, sometimes as frequently as every 20 minutes, to see if any new updates had been posted. These employees claimed that their total visits to these sites spread throughout the day totaled the 15–20 minutes they were allowed for daily break time. By spacing out the media snacking at regular intervals, the employees gave themselves a number of rewards throughout the day. As one employee explained, “You can’t keep constantly working, nonstop, on work like this. You gotta take breaks.”40 The association between the type of work, in this case computer coding, and the need for media snacking has appeared in additional research on workplace Internet use.41 The repetitiveness and monotony of certain types of modern work make employees look for media snacks as a reward for completing tasks.
Break times are not just for personal restoration; they are also opportunities to socialize with coworkers. The symbol of workplace socializing is the watercooler, a place to discuss the previous weekend’s happenings and gossip about office politics. The association between watercoolers and workplace socializing is so strong that HBO created an entire advertising campaign with the premise that its shows were watercooler worthy.42 The campaign reflected the way coworkers discuss a previous night’s television programs. Digital technology has enhanced watercooler media discussions by providing tools for facilitating conversation. Before on-demand viewing and mobile devices, watercooler conversation depended on all participants having watched a particular program on a particular night; nowadays, when someone misses a memorable moment in a show, he or she can access it via digital resources. If television plays a central role as society’s common language, as television scholars have argued, digital media take things a step further by providing an easy way for fans to reminisce about a favorite movie or show, research a rumor, or create new fans by converting the uninitiated around a mobile device.43 Because digital content is more easily accessible than broadcast content is, nearly everyone in the office can participate in the watercooler conversation. In this way, the conversation becomes more inclusive, more diverse, and richer as a result.
The desire to discuss common interests during break time was broadly evident during my workplace visits. A colleague-to-colleague conversation about a video game or a YouTube video would often be overheard by other coworkers and would suddenly grow into several employees gathered together around a mobile device, where they would watch (or rewatch) the media object en masse. A prime example of this phenomenon occurred in the Latitude 34 offices. One day during observation, several of the employees decided to incorporate movie and television dialog into their regular conversations. At one point during a conversation involving lines from South Park, the employees repeatedly described the work they were collaborating on as “super cereal.” (This phrase is a reference to the South Park episode “ManBearPig.”) One of the employees was not familiar with that episode, so another employee described the episode and then frantically searched the web for a clip in which the characters used the joke phrase.
Not only is this kind of media snacking restorative, but like a break at the office watercooler, it offers an opportunity for socializing and reinforcing relationships. Cultural references are a way of distinguishing between groups of insiders and outsiders. John Fiske has written about the way slang terms and cultural references operate as a form of cultural capital that separates those who belong from those who do not.44 As seen in the preceding example, mobile devices help bridge these boundaries. Instead of excluding people who may be unfamiliar with a text, web-based content expands inclusivity by providing quick access to information about the references people use. By uniting people in this way, media snacking has proven to be an important tool in the development of fan networks. As Manuel Castells has noted, digital technology allows groups at work with shared interests to gather around the cultural events they find meaningful and not the ones that broadcast networks dictate.45 This community building culminates in such activities as workplace fantasy-sports leagues, group viewing parties, and the circulation of viral videos.
The media snacking observed throughout the offices I visited was notable for the ways it enhanced preexisting procrastination such as coffee breaks, lunch breaks, and snack breaks. Evidence of this media snacking reflected many of the results of larger studies conducted in the field of organization and management studies that show media snacking, in moderation, has restorative capabilities. In addition, this snacking fits within rhythms of the workday. Mobile devices enable on-demand access to digital content, which enables employees to take control of their media snacking and fit preferred types of media snacks to the appropriate types of day. Mobile devices allow employees to customize their snacking and enhance the benefits of restorative break times by providing access to the snacks they enjoy most. The versatility of mobile devices also enables employees to manage their own media snacking in relation to the specific content offerings on the web on a given day. Media companies contribute to the schedule of media snacking, as they target the procrastination economy with a variety of media snacks.
“Lunchtime Is the New Prime Time”: The Procrastination Economy at Work
Media companies are just as strategic creating media snacks as employees are in assigning them to particular parts of the workday. The history of web production reveals that the creation of media snacks is heavily influenced by the established media industries. Aymar Jean Christian explains that the financial realities of web production only allow “testing the medium from its margins.”46 The lack of sizable revenue in the procrastination economy means that the media snacks designed for the workplace are also designed to support and promote established media industries such as film and television productions. Media companies produce and distribute media snacks as appetizers meant to entice the workplace audience to integrate their intellectual property into their everyday routines and conversations. Media snacks provide brand maintenance and labor training through cross-platform flow, programming flow, and labor flow from mobile devices to