Social Medias Effect Running head: SOCIAL MEDIAS AFFECT ON PERFORMANCE

Does social media affect ones academic and work performance? Chynara Erkulova 20122194 Instructor: Dr. Maganat Shegebayev Academic Reading and Writing I KIMEP University 27 September 2012

Social Medias Effect Does social media affect ones academic and work performance? If Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world with its population of 1.2 billion users (Clayton, 2011). Not only this huge number of users, but also amount of time that is consumed, indicate social medias increasing influence. Whether its impact is positive or negative determines how people use it. Although people use social media for different purposes and in different ways, its misuse and overuse can adversely affect academic and work performance. Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Youtube, etc. are all parts of social media. Nowadays, social media accounts for one-fifth of entire time users spent online (Clayton, 2011). However, depending on the amount of time one spends on SNS, there are active and passive users. Influence of social media is certainly bigger on active users rather than on passive ones. This is why, in this essay I will talk about effects of social media or, in other words, of social networking sites (SNS), on active users, such as students, teenagers and employees.

Is social media good or bad for its users? Because there are as many opinions as there are as many people, one cannot answer this question easily. Outweighing pros and cons of SNS will help us to define our position. Talking about cons, social media, first of all, can be distracting and lead to procrastination and consequential low productivity of its consumers. Active users tend to succumb to temptation of checking their account on social networking site (SNS) before they start performing a particular task. Tim Pychyl, an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University characterizes use of social networking sites as taking a person with gambling problem to Vegas. Its just too easy to get doing other things rather than the hard work of intellectual work. (Banquil, K., et al 2009). Pychyl implies that enamoring alternative, such

Social Medias Effect as SNS, makes it harder to think rationally and make the right choice. In the case with students,

their choice of prioritizing between easy work and hard intellectual work will gravely affect the quality of home assignment and a grade to be obtained for the work. To illustrate, Karpinskis (2009) study of about 219 students shows that 148 Facebook users had a full grade lower than those who did not have Facebook account (Banquil, K., et al 2009). Yet, some of you may challenge my view saying that procrastination existed long before social media appeared. For every procrastination there is its own alternative, own distraction. Every generation has its distractions, and social media is the main distraction of the generation of 21st century. Taking into consideration its popular use among students and its growing impact, it is possible to conclude that social media adversely correlates with their academic achievement. By the same token, social media has the same adverse effect on employee productivity. Nearly half of office employees access Facebook during work (Nucleus Research Inc. 2009). Majority of these people spends an average 15 minutes a day and has no business-related reason for it. As a result, companies lose an average of 1.5 percent of total office productivity during the work day (Nucleus Research Inc. 2009). Moreover, survey conducted among employees of South African University proves the same, illustrating that the majority of faculty members access social media from their office not because of work-oriented reasons. (Ferreira, A., Du Plessis, T. 2009) If the purpose of using SNS is not related to work, then it can be assumed that employees are just wasting their work time and not working to the best of their abilities. In contrast, Bloxx Inc. (2009) presents MIT studies, which revealed that employees who have more friends tend to be seven percent more productive than colleagues with fewer friends. This shows that SNS help sustain worthwhile connections, which really matter in business world. In this

Social Medias Effect case, business-oriented use of social media can bring good results. Thus, depending on how employees use social media, its effect can be either positive or negative.

It is also important to mention such negative consequences of overuse of SNS at work as data leakage, increased security risks, identity theft due to malware that SNS contain. Malicious programs sometimes even destroy the entire database and delete all the information of company. When an employee is running several business applications along with social media simultaneously, this may slow down the computer server and will require more time in order to complete the task. However, Bloxx Inc. (2009) claims that if controlled, filtered and managed properly, SNS can work out for companys benefit. Again, depending on how social media is used, it can become either a friend or an enemy. The second negative side of social media is that it can also become an addiction for its active users. When a person can not control his/her amount of time spent on SNS, this person is considered to be addicted to SNS. Generally, addicted users spend more than 2 hours a day. Mark Fabbri, director of the Psychology degree program for South University, asserts that an addiction will cause the individual to lose out on other things on life (Donley, M., 2011). One example of such loss is amount of sleeping hours. As addicted users spend more time on SNS, they devote less time for sleep. Lack of sleep has detrimental effects on humans cognitive process (Lowry, M., et al 2010). Studies of Lowry, M. et al (2010) revealed a correlation between GPA and amount of sleep among the college students. On the scatter plot of GPA by number of hours slept by the students in an average night, it can be concluded that the more sleep students get, the better grades they are to obtain. Thus, if addicted students substitute hours of sleep by hours spent on social media, it can result in impaired academic performance.

Social Medias Effect As for adults, sleep deprivation affects quality and quantity of their work. One out of five adults report making frequent work errors due to sleepiness. (National Sleep Foundation 2000). Consequently, the employees, which are addicted to SNS and because of that do not get enough sleep, are more likely to demonstrate low productivity at work. Danger that is exposed on SNS can badly affect childrens academic performance. The Pew Center, in their Cyberbullying 2010 report, states that 93 percent of teens aged 12 to 17 use the Internet. More than half of this number uses the Internet daily (Wolak, J., 2008). With so many children using social media and so often, sexual predators create some pitfalls and

impersonate themselves in order to find new victims. Crimes Against Children Research Center reports that one in seven children aged 10 to 17 are victims of an online sexual solicitation. (Wolak, J., 2008). Becoming a victim of such molesters will certainly have bad consequences not only on the academic performance, but also on overall psychology of children. It is important to add some bright characteristics of social media as well. One of the most important and powerful features of social networks is their ability to connect people of different backgrounds as if they have no borders between them. Taking advantage of social networking without borders, some employees use SNS for business purposes. According to Skype Statistics (2012), 35 percent of small businesses use Skype as primary communication service. Besides Skype, other types of social media enable people from remote areas to get access to distance learning. For instance, countries such as Beijing, Jakarta, Brazil and Argentina use distance learning techniques to reach people in long distance. (Valentine, D. 2002). Moreover, disabled people are also able to get education by means of SNS. In addition, some people claim that they get treasured knowledge (such as information about different events, study abroad opportunities, grants, etc.) through the use of social media.

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Take the case of many educational institutions posting up-to-date information about scholarships, requirements and deadlines on Twitter. Furthermore, with LinkedIn, students can establish a professional web presence, post a resume, research a target company or school, and connect with other job seekers and employers. Thus, social media can become the land of opportunities for those users, who manage to use it for informative purposes. To conclude, impact of social media on employee productivity and student academic achievement should not be underestimated. When overused or misused, social networking sites have an adverse effect on their users such as a possibility of becoming addicted, tendency for procrastination and a decrease in productivity among both students and employees. If used properly, social media can bring benefits to its users, such as useful and updated information, educational opportunities, and even an increase in work productivity.

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References Banquil, K., Allyson Chua, N., Ann Leao, G., Ann Rivero, M., Allen Burce, C., Norhanisa Dianalan,S., Rose Matienzo,A., Ursula Timog, N.(October 2009). Social Networking Sites Affect Ones Academic Performance Adversely. Retrieved on September 9, 2012 from Scribd database, http://www.scribd.com/doc/28919575/SOCIAL-NETWORKING-SITES-AFFECT-ONE %E2%80%99S-ACADEMIC-PERFORMANCE-ADVERSELY Bloxx Inc. (2009). Social networking in the Business World: A Strategic Approach. Retrieved on September 23, 2012 from http://bloxx.com/downloads/US/bloxx_whitepaper_social_us.pdf Clayton,N. (2011). Social Networks Account for 20% of Time Spent Online. The Wall Street Jounal. Retrieved on September 25, 2012 from http://blogs.wsj.com/techeurope/2011/12/22/social-networks-account-for-20-of-time-spent-online/ Donley, M. (2011). Does Social Media Addiction Really Exist? Retrieved on September 26, 2012 from http://source.southuniversity.edu/does-social-media-addiction-really-exist31795.aspx Ferreira. A., Du Plessis, T. (2009). Effect of online social networking on employee productivity. Retrieved on September 11, 2012 from https://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10210/3407/397-1530-1-PB%5B1%5D.pdf? sequence=1

Social Medias Effect Forquer, L., Camden, A., Gabriau, K., Johnson, C. (2008). Sleep Patterns of College Students at a Public University. Journal of American College Health, vol.56, 563-565. Retrieved on September 23, 2012 from

http://psycdweeb.weebly.com/uploads/3/5/2/0/3520924/sleep_patterns_of_college_stude nts.pdf Lowry, M., Dean, K., Manders, K. (2010). The Link Between Sleep Quantity and Academic Performance for the College Student. Retrieved on September 20, 2012 from University of Minnesota Undergraduate Journal of Psychology, 16-19, http://www.psych.umn.edu/sentience/files/Lowry_2010.pdf National Sleep Foundation (2000). Sleep and Productivity: Are Your Employees Getting Enough Rest? Retrieved on September 25, from http://www.employers.org/files/partners/Liberty_Employee_Sleep.pdf Nucleus Research, Inc.( July 2009). Facebook: Measuring the Cost to Business of Social Notworking. Retrieved on September 23, 2012 from http://nucleusresearch.com/research/notes-and-reports/facebookmeasuring-the-cost-to-business-of-social-notworking/ Skype Statistics (2012). Retrieved on September 25, 2012 from http://www.statisticbrain.com/skype-statistics/ Valentine, D. (2002). Distance Learning: Promises, Problems, and Possibilities. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration. Retrieved on September 25, 2012 from http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall53/valentine53.html

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Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., Mitchell, K., Ybarra, M. (2008). Online Predators and their Victims: Myths, Realities and Implications for Prevention and Treatment. Crimes Against Children

Research Center. Retrieved on September 12, 2012 from http://www.unh.edu/crcc/pdf/Am%20%Psy%202-08.pdf