This article talks about how a council is to ban Facebook on its computers after it was revealed staff spent on average 400 hours on the site every month. Usage of Facebook is becoming such a serious problem for government sectors that its authorities have to resort to banning its staff from using it. Facebook is a live system where users can post how they feel or what they think, and they are able to get immediate responses from their friends. People can easily post what they want to share and their friends are able to reply immediately.
Facebook is an example of the interactive model of communication. For these council staff, both senders and receivers are active participants influenced by their own individual factors, such as whether they are affected by the statement the sender has posted on Facebook, or even whether they are interested in what the sender has to say. There is feedback and processes of encoding and decoding are taking place.
However, in the office, a transactional communication model is going on. There is simultaneous exchange and mutual influence between the staff and the authorities. In this case, it can be seen that their communication has been negatively affected by the environment, their usage of Facebook. What the staff views as important, such as the updating of their Facebook statuses, is not decoded by their superiors as such. In fact, it is decoded as employees not doing their jobs well and wasting taxpayers’ money. Banning its staff from using Facebook is a way to remove the negative influences of the environment by doing away with distractions. In this way, they will be better able to decode the messages that their work requires them to do.
Facebook has been a source of controversy ever since it was launched. Critics of it have long warned that playing Facebook can cause disruptions and distractions to our daily lives just because Facebook is so accessible and easy-to-use! However, even though we all know about the negative effects of using Facebook, we just cannot stop ourselves from becoming addicted to it. Using it is one of the recent fads to follow and to not use it is a way of ostracizing yourself. This is what Francis Bacon has analyzed – the Idol of the Theatre. We accept the fashion uncritically and this may lead to many misunderstandings.
miss wanling! I am very enlightened by your way of tying the transactional model of the workplace with Facebook.
ReplyDeleteBut I think the ban although being fairly reasonable, it is still unjustified because as the article said, the council was "unable to determine whether staff had been accessing Facebook in break times or before or after work, which had been allowed".
Did you think so too?
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ReplyDeletei agree with aiminggg about the council being "unable to determine whether staff had been accessing Facebook in break times or before or after work, which had been allowed" and therefore unjustified in banning facebook. But then again, even if the staff do only use facebook after work/during break times it might still affect their work performance; they might be thinking about what to comment on other people's profiles, or other miscellanous stuffs people do on facebook instead of really focusing on their work.
ReplyDeleteI think facebook will be yet another fad, albeit for a very long time, much longer than other fads usually last, due to, like you said, the more advance technology and also the fun games!
Interesting technical (never knew there were so many terms "encoding" "decoding" "transactional communications model") analysis of Facebook!
ReplyDeleteActually Facebook has since developed into almost a social phenomenon, having far-reaching impacts and influences -eg negatively affecting work efficiency- beyond just "another computer/online programme".
Personally i grant that the novelty of Facebook is still a considerable force in compelling people to follow this fad, but the nature of Facebook - social networking - is universal, and appeals to all ages, thus explaining its huge popularity.
I am skeptical about whether the banning of Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and eBay will really alter the work attitude of the workers for the better. Maybe such non-work entertainment helps to balance the stress from work, allowing them to take a breather before plunging into work again.
But then again, like everything else in life, things are best in moderation.
And FB is still here to stay.
I like your point about Facebook becoming the "idol of the theatre" where people accept fashion uncritically and that "a transactional model is going on" in the office. That was pretty informative..
ReplyDeleteI concur with Wenqi that banning the use of Facebook at work would be effective in "doing away with distractions" and to increase productivity. Everyone needs a break at their work and i think using FB occasionally would serve as a good relaxation time for the workers.
However i think workers need to exercise more self-control over their addiction to FB. Sure, you can be addicted to FB but i think there needs to be a understanding of knowing what to do at the right time. If you are paid to work, I think you should spend your time wisely and do some company work. I am sure your company has no intentions to pay you to surf their Internet to play Facebook.
I thus think that should the workers be more sensitive as to know when to do the right things, there is no need for the company to take such drasti measuers like banning people from playing Facebook when at work.