Does Social Media Use Affect Efficiency and Well-Being?
Social media is setting foot in another part of our lives.
We know that social media usage can have consequences in many areas of people’s lives, including their mental health and sleep. In fact, survey data from Forrester showed that 86% of American adults and 79% of European adults who use the internet also use social media. And, as of August 2014, social media is the biggest reason people use the internet. Research is now showing that social media is affecting our concentration at work, school—you name it.
So, who finds themselves interrupted by notifications from social media while they’re meant to be working? With social media infiltrating all areas of our lives, it makes sense that it would be affecting our work.
Stoney Brooks, a researcher in Tennessee, looked into how social media usage affects task performance. In this research he cited a study that found a typical worker is interrupted 6-8 times a day, which takes up about 28% of their day! As if being pulled away isn’t enough, once a person has been distracted from their task, it takes about 25 minutes to return to their original state of mind for productive work. Brooks found that social media usage is undeniably distracting and lowers efficiency and productivity. This applies to both students and professionals, influencing even the quality of their work.
Two people sitting in front of computer
What is Technostress?
Technostress is defined in this research as “a modern disease of adaptation caused by an inability to cope with the new technologies.” Three factors contribute to technostress considered in this study:
Techno-overload: conditions of technology that require a person to work faster and/or longer.
Techno-invasion: an inability of one to disconnect from work due to technology.
Techno-complexity: the consistent need for people to upgrade technological skills as technology is constantly evolving.
To test this, Brooks gathered a group of 209 students in a business program at an American university to understand how social media usage impacted efficiency. At this point, it had already been well established that technology could negatively impact efficiency and focus, but Brooks wanted to know about social media specifically.
The participants watched a 15-minute video called The Web is Dead from Wired. On the computer used to watch this video, there were tabs open to various social media platforms. The participants weren’t asked to open them, but when they did, the amount of time they spent on each platform was self-reported and tracked automatically. Following the video, the participants completed a short quiz based on the contents of the video. Measuring their quiz score in combination with the time they spent distracted by social media was used to understand how social media affected their focus and quality of work.
The findings of this research showed that social media usage can negatively impact both the personal and professional parts of a person’s life. Social media usage resulted in higher technostress and therefore lower happiness and performance.
Does Social Media Affect Focus at School?
One limitation of this study, as noted by the researcher, was that the participants were in college, so their experiences do not necessarily equate with people in the workplace. However, this limitation can also be viewed as an extension of the research. As this research has found and considering the big push for technology in classrooms, social media and technology lead to technostress, resulting in similarly reduced levels of happiness and efficiency in school.
Woman sitting in front of computer
The negative connections between social media and productivity demonstrate a need to reduce social media usage in everyday life. There are lots of ways to reduce your social media usage while you’re focusing, including:
Specific notification settings, or Do Not Disturb.
Put your phone in a different room. Out of sight, out of mind!
Try some of these out and set healthy boundaries with your technology usage for optimal productivity! You might be surprised by how much you can get done when you aren’t being interrupted by notifications and scrolling.
Study Objective & Methods
Does personal social media usage affect efficiency and well-being?
Stoney Brooks, PhD
Published in Computers in Human Behaviour, 2015.
This research investigated the effects of social media on efficiency and task performance. 209 college students participated, completing multiple questionnaires in order to understand the effects of social media on technostress, happiness, and focus. Happiness was measured using the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. Technostress was measured using questions from a previous study. Social media usage was analyzed during an experiment where the participants were required to watch a 15-minute video called The Web is Dead on a computer with social media tabs set up. The participants had autonomy on whether or not they would click on the tabs. If and when they did explore the tabs, the amount of time they spent on social media during the video was both self-reported and automatically reported by the computer. Following the video, the students completed a quiz about the video. Their quiz scores, in combination with the amount of time spent on social media, determined how much social media affected their focus.
Social Media and Well-Being Training
This research (and all our social media and well-being articles) have laid the foundation for our 3-course program designed for anyone wanting to approach social media and communications in a way that protects well-being and puts people first. Learn more here.
