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Facebook Alleged to Cost Economy Millions
A recent study conducted by the UK employment law firm Peninsula indicates that the British economy loses more than 233 million person hours per month due to the use of online social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. The conclusion is that employers need to crack down on this new habit, as it allegedly costs the economy more than £130 million per day.
One argument against this analysis is that social networking sites could actually prove to be a benefit for certain types of employers. For a person whose job entails networking with clients and potential clients, there could be an upside to allowing employees access to such sites.
In any event, these staggering figures do not address the question of whether time being spent on social networking sites constitutes time that workers would otherwise spend doing their jobs. It may simply be that the novelty of online social networking provides a new way for employees to waste time, taking away from old fashioned dalliances, like reading the news or talking on the phone.
For additional information, visit:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6989100.stm