A study by the Pew Research Centre reveals that social media can act as a stress-buster at work as browsing helps take a mental break. Further, it offers the potential to enhance worker productivity by “fostering connections with colleagues and resources around the globe”.
The researchers surveyed 2,003 adults in the United States. 27% use social media to speak with friends and family during work hours while 24% log on to professional interact with others. 21% seek help from social media to get information to help solve work-related problems. 17% use social media as a tool to build or strengthen personal relationships with their colleagues. Further, 14% apparently have found useful information on social media to help them in the workplace. Meanwhile, 16% say befriending co-workers on social media has lowered their professional opinion of the person.
78% have found it easy to network and find new job opportunities using these digital platforms. On the other hand, 17% “hardly ever” use the internet when at work, or for work-related tasks. 25% say they “never” use social media for these reasons.
“In the end, a majority (56%) of these workers believe that using social media ultimately helps their job performance. One-in-five believe that it mostly hurts, 16% feel that it doesn’t have much impact either way and 4% see both the benefits and the drawbacks,” the researchers concluded, as reported in The Times of India.
