The Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is a technological phenomenon that is changing how Americans work. From Palm Pilots to Blackberrys to iPhones, PDA’s are breaking the barriers between office and home in novel ways.

According to a recent survey conducted by Studylogic LLC,

85% of respondents say that PDA’s and cell phones allow them to spend more time out of the office and 79% believe they can be just as productive outside of the office as opposed to inside the office. 84% of people feel that technology gives them more quality time and flexibility with family and friends and 77% say their PDA helps them enjoy life more.

If these numbers are representative of the population as a whole, then perhaps what we are seeing is less of a trend and more of a sign of how work will evolve in the future. And, if the next nine decades are anything like the first, then history will remember the 21st Century as the Age of Domestication…

Enter 2000 CE. With the dawn of a new millennium there came too the rise of the internet and the personal computer. Combined, these both allowed for a new kind of social interaction: instant messaging, e-mailing, blogging. Communication never felt so interactive, interaction never so easy. What critics hated, advocates loved: all of these activities could be done in your pajamas, while eating munchies, and channel surfing. For better or for worse, social interaction was quickly moving indoors and technology was clearly to blame.

Is it possible that our workplace could be altered in a similar way? Could we be close to a time where the majority of productivity is done from home, with just a day or two dedicated to face to face interaction at the traditional office? While this future is only possible for those jobs whose responsibilities fall within the boundaries of this technological advance, it would nonetheless present itself as major change to the very concept of employment.

Blackberry image courtesy of Travelhouse