The Advertiser’s online site- AdelaideNow, on the 27th October reported that social networking sites, such as Facebook help improve productivity for workers, despite businesses banning the site for employers.
Adelaide Now reported that up to one-third of Australian workers admitted to using ‘Facebook’ while at work.
A report from the University of Melbourne stated that staff who were permitted to access the internet for ‘fun’ (including Facebook); were actually more productive than those prohibited. However there were limits as to how long being logged on could help productivity, the report stated usage no longer than 20% of their work time.
Adelaide had the lowest rate of employees checking Facebook at work, however, Adelaide also has the highest number of employers (just under half) that have banned the site from their employees.
Men were slightly more likely (37.1 per cent) than women (33.8 per cent) to access social networking websites in the office.
Being a teenager and an active user of ‘Facebook’, my experience has shown me that quite a large number of teenagers waste time on these sites when they should (and have originally intended to) be studying or completing assignments. Friends have confessed to me that while they should have been doing assignments they logged on Facebook intending to only be on for ten minutes but ‘accidently’ wasting two hours on the site as it is so easy to become distracted.
Therefore I think in the workplace, with adult employees, allowing them to access such sites is a positive move, however, teenagers that have become ‘addicted’ to such sites lack self control and ultimately do waste time. Teenagers find it easier than doing actual work on days that they are tired or lack motivation simply because socialising is easy and requires little effort. Teenagers have come to rely on these social networking sites, just as they rely on their mobile phones.
In fact, Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) suggests many teenagers are spending more than 20 hours a week online, staying up into the early hours of the morning and leaving their mobile phones on all night in case they receive a text message.
The Byron Review of children and new technology, set up by Gordon Brown in 2007, reported that four out of five children aged five to 15 have access to the internet at home. Almost half of these (49%) between ages 8 and 11 have their own mobile phone. More than two-thirds (71%) of 12 to 15s say they mostly use the internet unsupervised at home.
From my experience, logging onto Facebook for about ten minutes while doing uni work has stimulated my brain and increased my motivation, however I have had the odd occasion when I got distracted and spent an hour on the site, and I admit my motivation dropped even more than when I had first logged on. So it seems as though a break every now and then does help productivity, but above all, self control is the key.
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