If you like checking social media at work, all that scrolling could have a surprising impact long after you put down the phone. A Rutgers-led study, published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, finds that perceptions of social media content – how we judge the posts we’ve seen – could affect how we interact with our co-workers and whether we accomplish our goals for the day.
“We’re usually on autopilot when we’re scrolling, but we need to be mindful at work,” said Rebecca Greenbaum, a Professor of Human Resource Management in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations and lead author of the study. “Social media can either build us up or tear us down. During the workday, it could affect our motivation.”
Greenbaum and her colleagues began with a pilot study to confirm, empirically, that social media has vastly increased the amount of social information we receive at work. “Back in the day, you would hear about Bob’s grandkids and that was it,” she said. Next, they analyzed data to drill down on four prevalent themes in social media content: attractive (fit pics, thirst traps, etc.), family (mom’s birthday plans, your cousin’s baseball game), contentious (politics, rage bait), and accomplished (someone’s promotion).
Then, they surveyed 133 workers twice daily, for two weeks, to assess the content’s impact. The researchers asked each worker to think about the “most salient” post they had seen that day – what left the biggest mark – along with how they felt and how much they got done at work. To read the full story.