Roma Shah
UI/UX Designer
Is social media a distraction?
Research Paper
Social media can indeed be a distraction for many people. It's designed to be engaging and can easily pull you away from tasks or activities you should be focusing on. Striking a balance between social media's benefits and drawbacks is essential for effective navigation in the digital age.
Introduction
Social media, interactive digital tools, enable people to share thoughts, ideas, and information in virtual communities. With over 4.5 billion global users, major platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. WhatsApp is particularly prevalent, used in various settings. However, social media can disrupt daily life, affecting personal relationships and work. Many see more drawbacks than benefits, particularly regarding its impact on working individuals' well-being. Furthermore, it has expanded from smartphones to laptops, iPads, and wearable devices.
Aim
Understand how social media prevents people from spending quality time with each other and how it also creates distractions during work.
Research Analysis
Social media use fulfils the needs of relatedness with professionals, family, and friends in both professional and personal time. First, social media serves as a channel through which users can exchange task-related information, ask for and provide real-time help, and collaborate on problem-solving during the work process. Second, social media use entails a psychophysiological state that is characterized by high arousal and high positive valence.
Conclusion
This research explores how organizations can manage social media use, providing practical guidance to enhance benefits and reduce drawbacks. It's valuable for social media providers to understand user behavior and address potential quitting factors. The study also contributes to information systems research by examining the impact of social media on job performance from a psychological perspective. It looks at resource allocation between social media and work, proposing that aligning attentional resources with task demands can minimize social media distractions.