Social media is not just for the young anymore. According to Pew Research Center, 74% of online adults are using social networking sites.(2014) Miriam Webster's Dictionary defines social media as "forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)." These networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked- In, Instagram, and many others that are less well known. The avenues of communication can be amazing for connecting with people from one's past and also for meeting new friends. But, despite the communication opportunities social media provides, research suggests that it is more harmful than beneficial to users because of a loss of boundaries between personal and professional life, complications in personal relationships, and the addictive nature inherent to social media.
Research supports that use of social media can be harmful to professional relationships because of the loss of boundaries between personal and professional life. Many companies in the past decade have put social media policy in place to help protect them and also to help point their employees in the right direction when to come to the daily usage of these sites. Employees are using Facebook,
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Easy Access to information and the sheer amount of information that people put out there mean that our personal and professional lives have become, or are at least in the process of becoming, irrevocably blended together. Even the strictest privacy settings are not going to stop personal posts from being at least partially public, and they are only going to become even more so."(Admin,