Does social media chain us to our jobs 24/7

Jun 3, 2010 by Dirk Singer

If you started work in the early/mid 90s like myself, you’ll remember a time when going home meant just that – someone had to physically ring you on your home phone to get you to do something and the chances of you having a laptop with you were fairly slim.

Not anymore, as anyone who owns a smartphone / laptop combination will know. And data published in emarketer (from a TNS / InterCall study) show that in the US 3/10 workers felt the need to be connected to work 24/7 – in particular men in their 30s.

A prime culprit according to the study is in fact social media and ‘always on technologies’ in smartphones.

An earlier IDC study in the states found that 57% of US workers now use social media for business purposes at least once a week. Meanwhile 34% actually chose a consumer network such as Facebook or Twitter over a business one, due to familiarity and low cost. The main thing that they do? Something familiar to everyone on Twitter, asking questions and acquiring knowledge from a wider peer group.

At the same time there are doubts about how productive this is. While 52.3% of workers surveyed by the American Society for Training and Development did say they learned more in less time, only 37% actually thought they got more work done.