Social Media and Work

As social media branches into our lives more and more it becomes a part of different aspects of our lives that we never envisioned it in. As I plug away at my website, I can't help but remember the role it played in my job this summer, and the problems it also creates.

Social media has been renowned for creating problems in the work place, mostly as a)a time waster/distractor but also as b) a censorship issue. The first issue is quite obvious, even if you are doing something such as updating a twitter account directly related to your work, it looks highly unprofessional to be on your phone while in the workplace, especially on a social media site. In terms of censorship I am referring to the fact that once you say something or share a video, even if it is meant for a personal audience, everyone, including the people you work with see it. Therefor the moment you share something that is in bad taste you are being evaluated by current, old or future employers. The question is, is this right? Should employers be looking at stuff you post? Or better yet, should you be posting stuff that you know your employer will see. It is something that makes me cringe every time I see something controversial come across a facebook feed. In turn this bring on the question of; is being on social media to such a large extent starting to censor people who are concerned about being called out by a supervisor? Who know, maybe I shouldn't be as bothered by it as I am, but I think that in a world where everything is so readily available to the public it is difficult to remain professional at all times.

While social media plays into employment in the above way, it also can be beneficial. For example, a facebook and twitter account set up for the park I worked at helped to keep people up to date on what was going on. I used my phone to regularly update a twitter feed about the research I was doing. Click here to see the twitter feed. Its a great tool for attracting people who may never had heard of the project outside of the park. But at the same time, using a phone regularly at work, even if it was for work tasks did, in my opinion, look unprofessional. There is also the issue with the likes of accessibility. Lets just say the Canadian Shield does not provide the best cellphone service, which can make regular updates difficult from time to time.

This less than impressed looking Barred Owl was quickly shared to social media 

What do you think, is the interaction between social media and the workplace a good thing. or a bad thing?