Social Media Engagement
Social media websites and applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram are used prevalently by Millennials. It is crucial to emphasize that the addictive nature of these websites can influence individuals to deviate from completing important tasks. Social media websites enable individuals to have connections with their peers on a constant basis, and this frequent connection and abundance of information potentially result in an addictive behavioral pattern which urges individuals to check their social media accounts frequently. Nevertheless, the information presented to these individuals can also incite them to compare themselves with other members of the society, thus giving them a feeling of disparity for not living up to the standard of others. For example, an individual may come across a social media post in which another individual has boasted about an accomplishment (ex. purchase of a new car or new house), and this may leave the former individual feeling inferior, given that he/she hasn’t accomplished that goal yet. The ‘story’ feature of Instagram, Facebook messenger and Snapchat enable users to update videos on a frequent basis. Due to the extent of its frequency and ease of use, personal updates are provided consistently to viewers which makes these applications even more addictive.
The usage of Facebook results in mental distress in individuals to some extent (Greitemeyer & Sagioglou, 2014). The findings specified that individuals using these websites consider these activities to be unproductive which incites the mental distress due to the wastage of time associated with it. Therefore, it can be questioned why individuals will participate in activities which is detrimental to their productivity and psychological well-being (Dhir, 2018). The researchers arrived at the conclusion that these individuals are unaware of the negative emotions associated with the unproductive activity.
The goal of the article is to demonstrate whether the widespread use of social media websites has a positive or detrimental impact on Millennials, which is a crucial factor to consider in terms of determining organizations’ success. Millennial employees are currently the youngest generation entering the workforce.