Taylor Definitions: “The Bored at Work Network”
The “Bored at Work Network” is described as a group of digital media users, particularly those who are bored in offices or other jobs, that are able to access and use digital media such as news and entertainment on devices such as computers/laptops, tablets or smart phones. Jonah Peretti, the cofounder of the Huffington Post and founder of Buzzfeed describes the contents that members of the “Bored at Work Network” access as “easy to understand, easy to share, and includes a social imperative” (p. 99). In addition, priority is placed on how popular and how fast an idea can be shared and spread over its quality.
These days, when some users get bored, it is very easy to just take out smart phones or tablets to surf the Web, watch movies or video clips, listen to music, read news or e-books, or play games. The “Bored at Work Network” types of contents are mostly what users with limited time (such as stolen moments at work as mentioned by Taylor on p. 99) engage themselves in since these contents are usually the popular ones and do not take up much of the users’ time to understand them. Because we know that these contents are always with us on our devices, we are very likely to get distracted wherever we are, even when we are in school or at work. Some users who get bored at work deal with the boredom by checking social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. They share news and videos that not only interest them but also those they think that are easy to share and those that they want to go viral.
