University Essay: The Role of Social Media in Career Destruction

This essay examines the detrimental effects of social media on individual careers, focusing on how it leads to distractions, reduced productivity, and potential for cyberbullying and misuse of company information. The author argues that excessive social media use can result in hasty firings and damage professional reputations. The essay compares and contrasts two articles to support the claim that social media diverts attention, decreases concentration, and changes how people learn and remember information. The negative impacts on workplace productivity and the rise of cyberbullying are discussed. The essay concludes that while social media has its benefits, its overuse can significantly harm professional careers, emphasizing the importance of limiting social media usage to prioritize career advancement. References from Newport (2016) and Proulx (2020) are included.

Running head: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN RUINING INDIVIDUAL CAREER
The role of social media in ruining individual career
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN RUINING INDIVIDUAL CAREER
Social media is harmful. For all its intentions and purposes, social media is indeed a
great thing. It can help in keeping contact with the near and dear ones across borders and can
even provide a good deal of knowledge about the happenings in the world. On the other side,
occasionally, the mistakes done in the social media sites can result hasty firings from
companies and many people regretting their posts on Facebook and Twitters. Today, due to
social media, ability of people to focus without distraction on their tasks is becoming
difficult. This is further resulting in counter-productiveness and is evidently becoming a
passive approach towards professional advancement. The excitement accrued by social media
results in counter production in one’s career. This essay shall elaborate on discussing on how
social media is ruining careers of the modern children and employees for whom surfing
internet and checking social media accounts every now and then are becoming a growing
habit. It shall compare and contrast two articles on the same point.
According to Newport (2016), social media diverts the attention of individuals away
from producing their given work. It successfully manages to convince its user that- “it is you
that matters”. It is decreasing their concentration ability and at the same time, is changing the
way in which people usually learn and remember the facts and information. It does so by
overloading their memories with a bulk of irrelevant information. Many researchers have
found that there is an increasing explosion of the usage of social media and it is becoming
highly addictive. As survey conducted in the year 2012 have revealed that employees spend
about 1.5 hours every day at workplace on an average. This makes a total of 7.5 hours a week
and more than 30hours a month. Altogether about 390 hours get wasted. However, it is to
mention that this does not take into account the other common distractions like tea-breaks,
personal calls and gossiping with co-workers etc. There are many Canadian companies and
workers that are feeling the wrath of the unhealthy and overuse of social media usage during
the working time. It is giving shorter attention span to the individuals and worsening their

2THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN RUINING INDIVIDUAL CAREER
memories and in this way, is physically changing the human brains. With the increasing
changes in social media and internet technology, the modern society is coming into terms
with cataclysmic changes that such phenomena are having on the normal public. It has
significant affected the election process, the human interactions and also is dramatically
changing the societies. Researchers are with the view that rapid shifts in attention and
desensitisation are two major outcome of increase use of social media, leading to the outrage
distraction and fatigue.
Furthermore, it is to mention that social media is counter-productive. There are long
lists of companies that have already banned the use of social media in workplace and many
are on the verge of banning. According to the data provided by Proutx (2020), every one in
five companies block Facebook usage in workplace and about 15% of the global companies
have already banned the use of YouTube and Twitter as well. The increasing usage of the
same has struck the fear of decreased in productivity, increase in the company exposure for
different types of work-related claims and unwanted publicity of the same among the
employers. The research findings of Newport (2016) have demonstrated that misusing social
media in workplace puts the companies at high risk in terms of misuse of the confidential
data and information of the company, harassment, misrepresenting business views and
improper usage of non-business. However, the biggest concern is that social media is simply
wasting the time of the employees. Employees waste about 390 hours every year while using
social media accounts in workplace. This indeed is counter-productive for the company.
According to Proutx (2020) the cultivation of the social media brand in the workplace
puts the firms at high risk. Many researchers have claimed that high usage of social media is
directly linked with the workplace harassment and bullying. Taking into consideration the
positive usage of social media for undeniable number of goods, it is highly paradoxical that at
other places, it can be the home of offensive comments, inappropriate pictures, threats and

3THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN RUINING INDIVIDUAL CAREER
revelations of other sensitive personal details and information that cause great distress to the
people in the workplace and beyond. Increasing number of employers worldwide is including
guidance on the usage of social media in bullying and disciplinary policies. Newport (2016)
too in this context has claimed that the increase in online networking and the usage of social
media has seen increase level cyber bullying. It refers to any type of bullying or victimisation
in online platform. It has the potential of spilling from on-screen to off-screen and can
influence face-to-face interactions among the colleagues at work and others from work.
Furthermore, mistakes done in the social media sites can also result hasty firings from
companies and many people regretting their posts on Facebook and Twitters.
Hence, from the above analysis it is to conclude that although social media is a good
tool for majority of people because of its undeniable contribution in the growth of society, the
excitement accrued by it can result in counter production in one’s career. It is negatively
impacting the professional career of people and is decreasing the production in the career.
Therefore, it is very important to decrease the use of social media if career is the priority.

4THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN RUINING INDIVIDUAL CAREER
References:
Newport, C. (2016). Quit Social Media. Your Career May Depend on It.. [online]
Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/jobs/quit-social-
media-your-career-may-depend-on-it.html [Accessed 4 Mar. 2020].
Proulx, N. (2020). Cyberbullying. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/learning/cyberbullying.html [Accessed 4 Mar.
2020].