How Badly Do We Behave on Social Media?

DO WE REALLY BEHAVE BADLY ON SOCIAL MEDIA? There is a silent assumption in corporate America that employees left to their own devices will abuse their social networking privileges. But is it true? Pew Internet recently analyzed the social-emotional aspect of social networking to see how humans actually interact, and reached a very different conclusion than we are often led to believe. WHAT IMPLICATIONS DOES THIS STUDY OF THE PUBLIC AT LARGE HAVE ON SOCIAL NETWORKING IN THE WORKPLACE? KINDNESS ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES The most compelling finding is that the overwhelming majority of both teens and adults think people are kind on the social web: TEENS 69% ADULTS 85% "People are mostly kind." "People are mostly kind." 20% 5% "People are mostly unkind." "People are mostly unkind." 11% 5% "It depends." "It depends." MORE THAN HALF OF TEENS AND ADULTS CREDIT SOCIAL NETWORK PARTICIPATION WITH IMPROVED SELF-ESTEEM AND STRONGER BONDS WITH OTHERS: 61% 58% 68% 65% ADULTS TEENS ADULTS TEENS SOCIAL NETWORKING MADE ME FEEL CLOSER TO SOCIAL NETWORKING MADE ME FEEL GOOD ANOTHER PERSON. ABOUT MYSELF. NEGATIVITY MORE COMMONLY EXPERIENCED BY TEENS ON SOCIAL SITES THE NEGATIVITY THAT DOES EXIST ON SOCIAL NETWORKS TENDS TO INVOLVE TEENAGERS MORE THAN ADULTS: TEENS ADULTS 6%. GOT IN TROUBLE AT WORK/SCHOOL Has$H 3% GOT INTO A PHYSICAL FIGHT 8% 3% 13% CAUSED A PROBLEM WITH THE FAMILY 11% 25% RESULTED IN A FACE-TO-FACE ARGUMENT 12% 22% ENDED A FRIENDSHIP 15% TEENAGERS ARE ALSO MORE LIKELY TO ENCOUNTER "MEAN OR CRUEL BEHAVIOR" ON SOCIAL NETWORKS: 47% TEENS 44% ADULTS 29% 29% 18% 11% 12% 7% Frequently Only once in a while Sometimes Only once in a while Never Never Sometimes Frequently ADULTS WERE ASKED ONE ADDITIONAL QUESTION THAT TEENAGERS WERE NOT: “HOW OFTEN DO YOU SEE PEOPLE USING LANGUAGE, IMAGES, OR HUMOR ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES THAT YOU FIND OFFENSIVE?" 35% 38% 15% 11% NEVER ONCE IN A WHILE SOMETIMES FREQUENTLY ROUGHLY 73 PERCENT SAID THEY ENCOUNTERED OFFENSIVE MATERIAL ONLY ONCE IN A WHILE OR NEVER. ADULTS HANDLE OFFENSIVE SOCIAL NETWORK BEHAVIOR WITH MATURITY PERHAPS MORE EYE-OPENING THAN ANYTHING ELSE IN THE STUDY IS THE MATURITY AND JUDGEMENT ADULTS EXERCISE IN THE FACE OF OFFENSIVE ONLINE BEHAVIOR: FREQUENTLY SOMETIMES ONLY ONCE INA WHILE NEVER 41% 36% 25% 34% 24% 27% 16% 29% 20% 18% 21% 23% 22% 17% 19% 19% TEENS ADULTS TEENS ADULTS "TELL THE PERSON BEING OFFENSIVE TO STOP" "DEFEND THE PERSON/GROUP BEING ATTACKED." 84% 79% 45% 39% 35% 17% 9% 23% 13% 16% 12% 7% 2% 2% 5% 8% TEENS ADULTS TEENS ADULTS "JUST IGNORE WHAT'S GONG ON" "JON N THE MEAN OR OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR" "WHEN THEY SEE MEAN OR AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES, ADULTS ARE MORE LIKELY THAN TEENS TO IGNORE IT AND NOT GET INVOLVED." These findings suggest that corporate social media policies should be much more relaxed than they currently are. Most employees are perfectly capable of using Facebook or Twitter without incident. SOURCE | PEWINTERNET.ORG salesforce Rypple