Many CEOs forbid use of social media at work, but recent research shows that web surfing leads to increased productivity.
This Keas infographic explores the benefits of social media in the workplace, showing that social connections make people happier and a brief recess involving Internet-browsing increases productivity.
An Academy of Management experiment gave three groups of people — a control group bundling sticks, a group taking an Internet-free break and a group browsing the Internet for 10 minutes — the simple task of highlighting as many letter A's as they could among 2,000 words of text.
The three groups then had their mental exhaustion measured. Those browsing the Internet were 16% more productive than the Internet-free break group and 39% more productive than the control group.
The study concludes that taking a break, particularly one spent browsing the Internet, should be encouraged by employers hoping to increase productivity.
Do you use Facebook at work? Does it negatively or positively affect your concentration? Sound off in the comments.