It’s easy to get sucked into video. I’m constantly prowling for visuals for various freelance projects. It always takes longer than I anticipated. Today is a perfect example. I watched at least 20 lame videos before I found what I wanted. Whether you’re looking at something work-related or just snatching a few minutes for workday diversion, unless you work for yourself, video watching may be limited if it isn’t already.

There’s a feature in The Wall Street Journal (Mar. 4) about employers limiting and even completely blocking video content on their networks. One company found that 70% of the workforce at headquarters spent an hour each day on sites like YouTube and MySpace. The biggest management gripe: video grazing eats up the bandwidth on the company network.

I wonder though if in some industries, video watching (as opposed to information/content searching) doesn’t aid and abet creativity. Information is a stressful business, whether you’re a graphic artist at an agency or a freelancer hoping to keep a paycheck coming. Downtime and distraction can sometimes produce that spark of inspiration that creates a sensational product.

Ironically, this has opened a market for companies with products that can analyze computer traffic. Will more employers limit or prohibit video watching? A lot of Internet surfing happens during daytime hours. Will workplace limitations impact traffic for the big three: YouTube, Yahoo and Fox Interactive?

Note: I selected the video below because Andersson’s work re-defines classic. There are so many elements in each of these short commercials you could write a book of literary criticism about them. Really.

Video blurb—“Seven TV commercials by Swedish director Roy Andersson. According to Ingmar Bergman, these are the best in the world.”

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