A couple of eye-brow raising stats came out recently. The Society for New Communications Research released a study regarding journalists and their use of social media. It’s no shock that the study revealed the “use of social media tools by journalists is surging, growing in double-digit percentages in some cases.” But, as ZDNet points out… there’s interesting insight to how many of the 341 journalists surveyed are not taking advantage of social media sites.
- Over 50% of journalists do not watch videos online
- Approximately one-third of the journalists surveyed do not read blogs
- 75% don’t listen to podcasts
- More than half of the journalists do not use Twitter or other microblogging sites and tools
- Nearly one-third of these journalists don’t use social networking sites
But hey, 91% of journalists surveyed agree that new media is enhancing journalism. I wouldn’t be able to get away with not using social media and blogs at work. Then again, I wonder what percentage of these journalists are online journalists… hmm…
Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project stirred a few stats up for a Reuter’s article. According to the survey, 56% of Americans believe it’s “irresponsible” to be Facebook friends with your boss. More so, 62% of those surveyed said it’s wrong befriend an employee. Other intriguing highlights:
- 52% believe it’s appropriate for companies to review the social media profiles of job candidates
- 73% don’t think it’s appropriate to update your Facebook status while at work; 72% say you shouldn’t tweet at work
- More than 40% of parents believe you shouldn’t post photos of children online
- Although just under 70% of parents are friends with their kids on Facebook or MySpace, 31% of them monitor their children’s Facebook accounts
- 72% of parents limit the time their kids spend on social media networks
- More than 80% of parents say teachers shouldn’t interact with students online
Do SND readers agree with the lot above? These findings come as sort of a surprise to me, I’ll admit. Not too long ago, I befriended my 8th grade teacher after my friend told me she was online. And I’m definitely friends with past employers… Okay, so maybe it’s different since 8th grade was a long time ago. And perhaps it depends on the relationship you’ve developed with an employer. For me, Facebook is a networking and contact tool where I’m usually eager to befriend employers and co-workers. Does that mean the cheese stands alone? Uh, I mean, do I stand alone on this? Share your thoughts!
1 comment
Anonymous says:
February 26, 2010 at 10:27 am (UTC -7 )
So, my boss actually just friended me on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. Although I have no problems being “friends” with my boss, I’m wasn’t so sure I want to “friend” her. I mean, what if I want to vent about her from time to time? By ignoring her friend request, I run the risk of offending her. By accepting, I am ultimately self-censoring my page and the info on it.
Then it hit me: There are lots of “friends” with whom I work, or who know me professionally. And since my title is fairly public, any venting, criticizing, or other potentially damaging comments I have should not, EVER be done in a forum as public as Facebook. In fact, Facebook should be treated as just that: An open, public forum where anyone I know might see the details of my life. In spite of the fact that i have control over who sees that page, there are so many circles of my life interlaced on Facebook that I should probably treat any commenting done as public speaking. And if I do treat it that way, then who cares if some future employer checks that page out?
With that in mind… then, what the hell’s the fun of Facebook?