Dangers of social networking for employees Research Paper

Dangers of social networking for employees - Research Paper Example However, social networks also brought many challenges in the organizational world. The misuse of social networks by the employees is causing big headache to the organizational world. Employees are spending too much time in front of the social networks and failing to complete their routine works in time. They are providing vital company information to the competitors knowingly or unknowingly through social networks. Competitors are exploiting the possibilities of social networks to know the business secrets of organizations through employees. It is necessary for the organisations to regulate the activities of employees in social networks. The traps existing in the social networks are unaware to many of the employees. Employees should be encouraged or trained to use the social network in a judicious manner while working in an organization. This paper analyses the dangers raised by social networks to the employees. Dangers of social networking for employees (Tomexy, 2011) At the time of introduction of social networks such as twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Skype etc, nobody thought that it may affect human life as it does now. Initially the purposes of social media were; spending leisure time, relaxation, enjoyment and instant communication etc. However, after few years from introduction, social media have changed everything. It is difficult to describe the influence of social media on current human life in few words. Virtually, all the segments of current human life are influenced by social media now. Irrespective of culture, race, gender, age or socioeconomic background, people from all parts of the world are interested in social media activities. However, teenagers and employees are more active in social media websites. Social media bring lot of opportunities to the business people and teenagers. At the same time, it brings lot of challenges also. Business is one segment in which social media brings lot of opportunities as well as challenges. Social netwo rking marketing spending has been increased a lot in the past. According to a report, it has increased from $884 million to $2.34 billion in between the period 2007-2009 (Dickey & Lewis, 2010, p.140). Currently, organizations are utilizing social media not only for the recruitment of employees, but also for marketing products and services as well. Social media brought lot of opportunities to the employee community. It is easy for them to share their thoughts and relieve their personal and professional stresses through social networks. However, there are plenty of dangers hiding in social media for an employee. Many of the social media savvy employees in the past suffered a lot from social media. If not used judiciously and carefully, social media can bring more harm than good to an employee. This paper analyse the dangers involved in social media as far as an employee is concerned. Discussion Unlike many other media or channels of communication, social media has the ability to furni sh two-way communication. It should be noted that television and newspaper like communication channels are incapable of helping people in interacting each other instantly. Instant two way communication is good as well as bad as a far as employee is concerned. Instant two way communication helps employees to get the feedback or vital information from the other end quickly and take decisions based on that. However, while performing two way communication, employees often forget about the value of time and they may forget other important matters as well. Most of the employees engage in casual talks with others along with the professional matters while they use social media for communication. Casual talks often end up in waste of