That’s the question in the headline of this piece from the Times of London by Bernhard Warner.
There has been much fuss of late over the loss of productivity brought on by employees multi-tasking between actual work and social networking. One estimate puts the cost to British industry at £6.5 billion per annum in lost productivity and questionable bandwidth usage. Another survey estimates that Britain’s social media fanatics are spending as much as 12 hours per week on these sites, no doubt eating into valuable work time.
Warner then goes on to talk about student time spent on social networking. His ultimate answer to the headline question is “no” and two great points come out:
First: for young people, online social networking is like air. It’s just there, it’s part of life, and that is the end of it.
But teens are deadly serious about social networks. For them, failing to attend to these duties could end friendships, sink reputations and mean missed opportunities to climb the fickle and precarious social ladder of young adulthood. I say we ought to go easy on them if they are neglecting some of their responsibilities while they fuss around with their online persona.
For marketers, there’s a message there: maybe in your particular market space social networking isn’t that important today, but watch out - the digital natives are coming, and they’re going to age into being the decision makers you need to talk to. Better start thinking about it.
Second, from a commenter: everyone does social networking, even if they never touch a computer.
… in the “real” world of work, you never stop in the hall to chat with colleagues? You never take a coffee break or stop work for a minute because a colleague popped his or her head in the door? You never go to lunch and chat, about work, life, and politics? You never casually call someone on the phone to chat…pass along information, or ask a question?
If you do - that’s social networking.
Precisely. The power of social media is that they bring ordinary human behaviors into the digital realm. That’s why they’re compelling.