Okay, scoff all you want at the incredible predictions of lost time based on the NCAA tourney. I see the annual event as a great example of how technology both gives and takes away productivity. To whit:
Years ago, at best you entered a local NCAA pool organized by someone you knew, and once a day kept track of your results by hand. Maybe twice a day. ;) You maybe listened to the early rounds on the radio at work, but likely at best saw the scores online. As technology became more pervasive in the office, it became easier to lose time -- you had to do more research to pick your teams, you had to update them as the day went on, etc. So lost productivity all around.
Ah, but today, technology gives back! There is so much information about picking brackets that it's numbing - why even bother sifting through a gazillion differing opinions of how to pick, since nobody seems to agree anyway? In this case, the wisdom of the crowds is just...LOUD. So, back to just picking randomly. And why bother writing picks on paper, when all those sites will run the pool for you? Click, click, click, done. And then who need to bother watching the games? Get an RSS alert and print out your neatly updated bracket at the end of the day, what could be easier?
Thus is productivity maintained.