As an intern, I am fairly new to the American corporate working environment (work for a I-Bank in New York), but I have learned fairly quickly through my own experiences and those of my workign friends that much of the average office employee’s workday is spent surfing the web. I was wondering, what did people do to kill time in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s before the internet or even the pc? Did people entertain themselves with mindless chatter or crosswords, maybe listen to the radio? What did corporate America do to kill time in the workplace way back when?
Work? 
I really don’t think that the average American employee spends much time surfing the web during work. Of course nobody at the SDMB is average!
I really do think that most people kill time at work by actually working. I think they did that in the 60’s and they do it now. Wasted time them was probably spent chatting or (if TV is right) reading the newspaper and filing their nails.
Not sure if this answers your question, but some stones in the Egyptian pyramids have graffiti carved on them by the stonecutters (or other workers). Apparently posting messages to unknown people goes back a few years (and the reponse time is just about as slow as my server)
Before we had the Internet to surf, we just shot the shit with each other. That’s how some of my former bosses and I became friends.
The less work environment oriented diddled with crossword puzzles or stayed on the phone with friendss all day.
While I did spend huge amounts of time talking with certain co-workers, it usually began and ended with something work related. The phoners and puzzlers were on a different plane.