• by Mike Bloxham , Op-Ed Contributor, May 20, 2008

Most people who know what it was like to work in an office without a computer are now either spending their days on a golf course or rotting six feet under. It seems increasingly bizarre, but the days when the now-archaic fax machine represented the height of workplace technology really weren't that long ago. After all, the PC only began to enter the workplace during the '80s, and even then without the attendant delights of the Internet (including, of course, advertising).

Even if you were barely acquainted with computers back then, you were surely familiar with the promise they held. For years we'd heard confident predictions that they were going to change our lives - from the news media, documentaries and so on.

While the way we work, play and learn has indeed been massively overhauled by the advent of the computer and, subsequently, the Web, there are a couple of things that were always central to what computers were thought to mean to our collective future that ultimately didn't come to pass.

The first of these is the mythical paperless office: an administrative nirvana, where everything we'd need would reside on our trusty computers (presumably putting manufacturers of filing cabinets and other remnants of a soon-to-be bygone age out of business).

Nobody I know can credibly claim to work in such a place. While there are indeed fewer business letters thanks to e-mail, the primal instinct to keep a hard copy means most desks are as cluttered as they always were. We've basically traded in the typewriter for an upgrade, a kind of Robo-Writer that does so much more than write. The filing cabinets haven't gone away, either.

The other failed prediction was that computers would give us all more leisure time (you know, fewer working hours) because we would get our work done so much faster. This one partly came true. While we are getting our work done more quickly, this increased productivity has only created time for more work.

Rather than grasp the somewhat utopian vision of a more leisurely and relaxed society, the reality of human nature instead led to the inevitable pursuit of greater productivity. U.S. workers take less vacation time than workers in any other developed country, and the line between work and home life is increasingly blurred.

This is especially true for those who work in the media industry. Supplied with all the communication devices we need to be able to work nights, weekends and even on vacation, we find that's exactly what has become expected. It's indicative of how computers and communication technology have changed our work and personal lives. Indeed, working in the media industries, readers of this column are probably among those for whom the phrase "work-life balance" has a somewhat hollow ring.

Being available 24 hours a day means marketers also have opportunities to reach consumers like never before - even in the workplace. Advertising in the office has been historically off-limits and nigh-on impossible to measure (which it largely remains), but the advent of the Web and, more recently, smartphones, has opened doors to the workplace that were previously shut to brands of all kinds. And there is more to come. Listen closely and you'll hear the sound of desktop-bound applications like word processing morphing into Web-based applications - and the accompanying sounds of burgeoning advertising inventory.

Of course, the form such advertising will take remains to be seen, as does the rate at which it will develop (Microsoft alluded to plans in this vein more than two years ago). As with online video ads, we can expect much debate and experimentation before the question of format is resolved. Are utilitarian functions such as document creation inherently suited to rich-media advertising? Will we see a less intrusive form of banner branding, or will we see the equivalent of a pre-roll while Excel opens up? And the ultimate question: Will it be effective?

Considering the outdated assumption that increased productivity would lead to more leisure time - presumably time that would be spent consuming media in the home - it seems ironic that the workplace and not the home is now the target for advertisers.

Mike Bloxham is director of insight and research at the Center for Media Design, Ball State University. (mbloxham@bsu.edu)