Given research that shows that digital procrastination “may act as ‘digital watercooler’—enhancing workers’ productivity and effectiveness,” it is important to understand how these media snacks are made and for whom.4 Wired contributor Nancy Miller describes the concept of “snackable” media as the dominant mode of media engagement in the digital era: “Today, media snacking is a way of life. In the morning, we check news and tap out emails on our laptops. At work, we graze all day on videos and blogs. Back home, the giant HDTV is for 10-course feasting—say, an entire season of 24. In between are the morsels that fill those whenever minutes, as your mobile phone carrier calls them: a 30-second game on your Nintendo DS, a 60-second webisode on your cell, and a three-minute podcast on your MP3 player.”5 The relationship between “snacking” and “feasting” described by Miller also describes the hopes of media companies, that viewers will use their break times as appetizers—teasers for the “main course” of prime-time television or new film releases. Despite the designs of the procrastination economy, snacking can be more than just an amuse-bouche; it can be an indulgence and a rebellion as well. Digital content designed for the workplace is sustenance that helps certain people cope with the demands of their workday.
The workplace has always been an important location for social interaction; digital technologies make these activities more visible. Media studies scholars have encouraged a nuanced approach, producing research that considers social context as a contributing factor to cultural understanding. Much of this analysis takes social factors such as gender and class into account, although few scholars have examined specific sites such as the workplace.6 Digital content—whether in the form of movies, sporting events, social media feeds, television shows, websites, or games—provides a foundation for discussion around the virtual watercooler, break room, or lunch table. These discussions are part of the rhythms of the workday, bringing levity and camaraderie that help a place of employment feel like a community. In addition, media content can act as a common language for dealing with the local politics of the office or the larger politics of the nation.
In this chapter, I argue that the procrastination economy gives certain workers the ability to manage their workday with “media snacks.” Certain snacks correspond with the time of day or the work activity. The procrastination economy provides an endless variety of media snacks to ensure people can find the flavor, texture, and indulgence appropriate to their circumstances. Media companies support this workday media snacking in an effort to build programming flow, labor flow, and platform flow that can carry audiences and industry workers from one franchise, service, and product to another. While there are many types of media snacks available to the workplace audience, the media industries privileges those audience members who are most interested in checking in, catching up, and commenting on the latest headlines dominating cultural conversation. While audiences are free to use their mobile devices to spend their lunch breaks texting and catching up with loved ones, there is a consistent effort by media companies to entice the workplace audience to spend “snack time” with their intellectual property.
The Value of Snacking: Analysis of the Workplace Audience
Research on workplace procrastination shows that certain kinds of media snacks are more likely to support productivity than other kinds of media snacks.7 In addition, gender, relationship status, personality type, and workload contribute to the frequency and effects of media snacking.8 These studies demonstrate that snacking is related to a variety of contextual and social issues. Marshall McLuhan famously described media technology as “extensions of ourselves,” arguing, “the personal and social consequences of any medium—that is, of any extension of ourselves—result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”9 While McLuhan has been criticized for his tendency toward technological determinism, he aptly describes the way media technologies amplify “the scale and form of human association and action.”10 For example, workers already use media content in their work lives during break times and in conversation with coworkers. Mobile devices are tools for expanding this activity because they can include more participants and provide dynamic digital content that stimulates discussion. As digital technology and the ability to record usage of it proliferate, audience practices that were long ignored by entertainment companies begin to reveal themselves.
Mobile devices have enhanced media snacking at the workplace in two key ways: via mobility and choice. The fact that mobile devices are portable means that people can now do their media snacking in a variety of situations. This snacking is not limited to the break room but can happen at any time people need assistance from their mobile devices. Not only does this portability increase the utility of media snacking, but the access to a variety of content means that people can select the best snack for the occasion. Some situations call for audiocentric snacking, others require a short video, and sometimes people like to gather to watch a whole episode of a show. While mobile devices expand the possibilities for snacking, the use of mobile devices is still determined by routines. Multiple studies have shown that media snacking occurs within the flow of routines and becomes habitual, making it predictable and planned in relation to social factors.11 The types of media snacking relate to the social dynamics of the workplace and the routines of the workday. Mobile devices are a tool that enables workers to optimize their snacking for particular circumstances.
Evidence of the ways mobile devices enhance media snacking comes from ethnographic observations of three workplaces. From this analysis, it becomes clear that mobile devices are a crucial outlet for employees to stave off boredom, interact with colleagues, and assert their identities as informed consumers and citizens. Media-snacking practices can be categorized in three distinct periods: morning, lunch, and afternoon break times. Different technologies, digital platforms, and modes of viewing correspond to these snack breaks. Taken together, the way workers use their mobile devices demonstrates how workdays are built around a system of rewards and coping mechanisms that propel assignments toward completion, sustain connections between coworkers, and assuage the stresses of modern labor practices. The procrastination economy does not have to be a drag on the economy. Mobile devices help employees craft a more comfortable work environment. In this manner, workplace media habits are not much different from other workplace coping activities such as trading gossip around the watercooler. The procrastination economy is not a new threat to worker productivity but merely an enhanced version of snacking and coffee breaks that helps employees refocus and reward themselves for the completion of tasks.
Workers in monotonous jobs with repetitive tasks and low stakes in the success of the company are most likely to crave media snacks.12 This category of worker was readily available in the workplaces of two computer businesses in the Santa Barbara and Goleta area of central California and a large call center in New York City. The first company, Ameravant, is a website-production company that services businesses in the downtown Santa Barbara area of central California. Ameravant helps companies increase their online web presence and maximize their search-engine relevance. The entire company is composed of six programmers who all work in the same room at different desks with multiple computers running on each desk. Ameravant’s offices are located in the owner’s house, with each of the programmers organized in corners of the living room. The kitchen and living room are available to all employees, so meetings—both between coworkers and with clients—happen in the kitchen. The programmers work in the living room, and the owner’s office is in his bedroom. The atmosphere is relaxed but busy, since each programmer is responsible for maintaining multiple websites.
The second company, Latitude 34, is situated in a strip mall in downtown Goleta, California. Employees provide IT support for a variety of Santa Barbara companies. The company’s office has a more traditional office feel than Ameravant’s offices do. Latitude 34 is also family owned and employs seven workers. The office