Tech = work, print = slacking?

"...How did people ever look busy before computers?"
        - Dilbert and Ratbert

In reflecting on last weekend's BFTP: Reading on the job, I was struck (as were a couple of readers who left comments), that we seem to be living in a culture in which reading print materials on the job (books, magazines, journals) is seen as goofing off.

OK, no real change in that attitude since the original post appeared five years ago.

But today any form of computer use is viewed as productive. If one has hands on the keyboard, one is assumed to be working.

Ironically, as all of us know, computers and the Internet are a playground for slackers. Oh, the lost hours spen playing solitaire, shopping on E-Bay, liking on Facebook, viewing wacky cat YouTube videos, following celebrity tweets, or reading political diatribes. (Or so I've heard, never having done any of these things personally.)

Is this another example of format bigotry, but with print being discriminated against? Is it fair that coworkers scowl when I read the physical newspaper at my desk, but smile when I read it online? 

So where does reading/using on a tablet or e-book reader fall - on the approved or non-approved list of work activities? And what message are we sending to students when we seem to convey the belief that reading print is less worthwhile than being online?

Just thinking out loud here...

Image source

Comments

[Kenn Gorman]

I wonder if I am more likely to interrupt someone while they are reading a book or while they are looking at a screen?

I have also never seen anyone reading four different books (maybe holding two in each hand) at the same time, but I have seen students and teachers with multiple windows open at the same time.

Just thinking out loud...

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Kenn,

Good points. It's an interesting time...

Doug