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Do You Know What You Are Getting Into? :
An Analysis of Social Media Impact on the Future of Employment.
Cole P. Kochman
Kary L. Liska
Sara Slimick
Andre P. Stubbs
Juliette A. Viassy
Youngstown State University

Abstract
This study surveyed employees and student athletes who are affected by social media.
The authors analyzed 200 responses to our demographic questionnaires. Multivariate analyses of
the discretion of employees and student athletes dealing with Twitter, Instagram and Facebook
privacy. That is the main focus of this research. The author decided to research the problem of
social media correlating with athletes and employees because people are getting dismissed from
their jobs for rights the government has given us. This research is important for reasons such as,
invading privacy and taking away passionate expressions. This essay will help you understand
the manipulations the employees and athletes face with the strict rules involving social media.
Introduction

The following is a case study of how social media will affect athletes and people in the
workplace. This study used content analysis to examine how employers are looking at social
media accounts on deciding on whether to hire you. Do you think employers should view and
base hiring on what they find on social media? Why are collegiate and professional athletes held
accountable for saying and posting everyday normal content? People feel that the content on
their social media should have nothing to do with the workplace. This research is needed to push
for more privacy and the freedom to express yourself.
Justification
In today’s society, social media has taken over all aspects of our personal and
professional life. While social media continues to immensely increase, it’s imperative for
individuals who are competent in social media to understand the correlation it has to their future
employment status, including their employment prominence. Proprietors may act as if they are
undetectable online, but, in reality they are observing the present and prospective employees of
their company.
As some individuals may disagree and demonstrate opposite viewpoints to this particular
notion, employers will still partake in using social media to their advantage. On a personal
characteristic of social media, active users believe it to be an engaging way to keep in touch with
friends, family, co-workers and even be introduced to innovative individuals. Otherwise, in a
professional aspect, active users must be cautious of who they portray online, especially the
content they post. There is a fine line on social media that is necessary for individuals to
understand, one deceiving post “can” and “will” jeopardize your future. As human beings, we
are unaware of the things we say and do, which leads to a problem in the technological world of
social media. There is no room for errors in social media. Some active users will continue to post

insupportable content, but, is it because they are uninformed of the consequences? Or do the
users believe nothing will transpire from it?
As we use social media on an everyday basis, we are exposed to the profanity and
inappropriate content that individuals’ post, which proposes the admirers of social media a
mindset to believe it’s acceptable and undisruptive. Social media users at some point in time will
post or even condone the offensive behavior within their Twitter feed, Facebook timeline and/or
Instagram account. If more individuals were aware of the penalties it had on their future and the
association it has on their careers, they would make more of an effort to categorically watch their
social media accounts.
Our research subject addressed as, “Do You Know What You’re Getting Into?: An
Analysis of Social Media Impact on the Future of Employment,” we take a closer look at
individuals, primarily juniors and seniors, to gather their social media activity. The information
gathered includes the variety of social media accounts, privacy settings, friend requests, future
career choices and their thoughts and feelings on employers monitoring their social media
accounts. Active users are attentive to the different features social media has to offer and well-
informed that social media should be used wisely. If individuals are aware of the drawbacks of
social media, we then take a closer look into the second question, “Do users believe nothing will
transpire from it?” Members of our society carry a mentality of, “It won’t happen to me,” but, in
actuality “anything” can happen. When individuals don’t get caught when posting one
inappropriate post, which could be holding alcohol in photos, posting scandalous photos or even
displaying offensive hand gestures, they will continue to risk their demeanors until they run out
of luck. Since there are high numbers of usage for social networking sites, it would be
interesting, for future studies, to understand why people use these sites so frequently (Gitimu and

Sponcil, 10). As social media continues to tremendously intensify throughout our personal and
professional lives, individuals that are entering the work force field should be aware or rather
more aware of their choices on social media reflecting their potential future employment. As a
group, the conflicts that surfaced when conducting our research topic were, being rejected
multiple times from the Institutional Review Board. Our research topic was very board and the
Institutional Review Board wanted a more precise area for our group to look into. Another
problem our group faced was finding certain contributors that we needed, such as juniors and
seniors. Our plan to target the participant’s of juniors and seniors, we searched for 3000 and
4000 level courses from Youngstown State University as a whole.
Lit Review
Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social
Technologies in Organizations.
The purpose of this article is to explore the positive and negative consequences of social
media used for communication and interaction within the workplace. Enterprise social media is
an organization's use of social media, internally and externally, to connect individuals who share
similar business interests or activities. Enterprise social media is also distinct from traditional
communication technologies often used in today’s organizations. This is because those who use
them can see conversations occurring between others in the organization who are not their
communication partners and can distinguish social and work related connections among them.
In other words, enterprise social media operates as a “platform” upon which social
interaction occurs. This platform is digital, in contrast to the physical platforms of offices,
conference rooms and hallways that have traditionally been where people communicate, which
anyone in the organization can participate at any time from any place. Due to the dramatic

changes in social interaction, it is no surprise that industry analysts and business press predict
transformations in the way organizations adopt and operate in the coming decades.
As these new technologies begin to increase across organizations, it is important that we
develop an understanding of how they enable and constrain the communicative activities through
which work is accomplished because it is these very dynamics that constitute and perpetuate
organizations. It starts by defining enterprise social media and providing a background of the
various avenues through which these technologies have entered and continue to enter the
workplace. It also reviews areas of research covered by papers in this special issue and papers on
enterprise social media published elsewhere to take shock of the current state of our knowledge
and to propose directions for future research.
Friend or Foe? The Promise and Pitfalls of Using Social Networking Sites for HR
Decisions
While it is true that social network accounts do provide a glimpse into our lives, it is also
true that that glimpse is exactly what it is—a glimpse. The article argues that by allowing HR to
use social networking sites such as Facebook as a sole or important deciding factor in the hiring
process, companies lose invaluable talent. There needs to be a method, practice, and standard
set first. Without it, companies are liable to legal suits, discrimination, prejudice, and
unnecessary bias. This article also sums up why hiring reform must be made and also agrees
with our study.
Getting Social: The impact of social networking usage on grades among college students

In this article it illustrates how the use of social media sites, in the classroom is on the
rise, as is student time spent on exploring social networking sites. This study examines grade
differences among students at small, liberal arts colleges based on social media usage. The
research study was conducted by emailing an online questionnaire to over 2,000 patients at a
liberal arts college. The writers of this article concluded, “Social networking is here to stay, its
use has an impact on how students interact with others and on grades” (Stollak, Vandenberg,
Burklund, and Weiss 2011).
How Social Media Can Hurt Your Career
This article is similar to what we are looking into with our research because it was about
someone who was not careful about what they said on a social media and it showed how easily it
could be found and traced back to those individuals. People are not thinking at all about who
this can hurt in the long run and just thinking in the moment when they are posting things about
where they work and about certain employees. Our research goes more in-depth with people
knowing or not if what they post on social media sites can impact their future and even career.
How Social Media Is Having a Positive Impact on Our Culture
This article reflects on how social media positively effects out culture. It talks bout a
father and son who keep in touch by using phones and social media. It brings a light on all the
technology in today’s society and how it is something to make our lives not only easier but also
simpler. This article was not like the research our group did was more along the lines of how it
can negatively affect your future and how we need to be aware about privacy settings and if it is
appropriate to mix social lives with work lives.

Social Media and Strategic Communication: Attitudes and Perceptions among College
Students
The emergence of new digital technologies and social media has a dramatic impact on the
invariable change in communication. Also, social media, being the new “buzz word” in the
communications and marketing industry. It is the current label for digital technologies that allow
people to connect, interact, produce and share content (Lewis, 2009). Social media and its impact
on strategic communication is fairly recent phenomenon, so the empirical research on the topic is
somewhat limited. To conclude the fact that strategic communication research is somewhat
limited, Lewis states even though most college students use social media in their daily personal
communication, they do not automatically make the connection of how to use it strategically
(Lewis, 2009).
Social Media Use in Hiring: Assessing the Risk
Employers can use social media in two ways when hiring to recruit candidates by
publicizing job openings and to conduct background checks to confirm a candidate’s
qualifications for a position. When surveyed in 2013 about why they decided not to use social
networking sites for candidate screening, 74% of organizations said they were concerned with
legal risks or discovering information about protected characteristics when perusing candidates’
social media profiles. In the article the author express there are only two times when a person is
perfect, at birth and at the job interview.
Social Media Can Impact Future Employment

This article, unlike the research we did is stating that everyone out there has some kind of
social media website and is not filtering at all what they post. Our research was a bit different,
we looked at who used social media and what they were using and in some results people said
that they didn’t use any. Our group’s research also looked at if people were aware of what they
post and if they filter it. According to this article it states that people in general do not filter what
they post resulting in job loss where as what our group got as a result of our research states that
although there are some individuals who do not filter what they post there are many people out
there who do not use social media as their public diary.
Social Media Policies of Student Athletes Criticized.
Last year, the University of North Carolina softball players were not allowed to post any
of their photos from Halloween on Franklin Street to Facebook, at least not without a coach’s
permission. Athletic department officials say the policies are in place to protect UNC’s image
and student-athletes, but legal experts say they violate the student-athletes’ First Amendment
rights. The First Amendment guarantees citizens will not be censored by the government or
public bodies like UNC. The athletic department has an overall social media policy for student-
athletes, which requires students represent themselves, their team and UNC in a positive fashion
at all times. It also restricts various types of speech, including “derogatory language” and
unlawful speech.
Social Media Use in Hiring: Assessing the Risk
Employers can use social media in two ways when hiring to recruit candidates by
publicizing job openings and to conduct background checks to confirm a candidate’s

qualifications for a position. When surveyed in 2013 about why they decided not to use social
networking sites for candidate screening, 74% of organizations said they were concerned with
legal risks or discovering information about protected characteristics when perusing candidates’
social media profiles. In the article the author expressed there are only two times when a person
is perfect, at birth and at the job interview.
The Effects of Social Media in Today’s Workplace
This study examined the use of social media at work by surveying undergraduate students
and professors about their use of sites such as Facebook while working. They also examined the
effects of Facebook postings outside of work could jeopardize a position at work. The results
from the survey and research concluded that social media is an increasing problem but that there
is a growing expectation that monitoring of social media communications by employees will
occur.
The Legal and Effective Business Use of Social Media in the Workplace
Although employers may want access to social websites of their employees or potential
employees, employers must be careful not to pressure them into providing passwords or
usernames. Doing so may violate the Stored Communications Act and other federal and state
laws. Reading an employee’s social networking website may expose the employer to legal
action.
Three Ways Social Media and Technology Have Changed Recruitment.

Recruitment has changed dramatically in the last decade. A majority of companies have
now switched their efforts from face to face recruitment to online recruitment, taking special
notice to how they can increase their brand through social media. Companies now invest in
online profiles on various networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
They rely on these online profiles for job postings and hire people to manage these accounts.
Most companies see this as a massive advancement and are continuing to look for better ways to
utilize social media while not forgetting about the group of people who don’t have social
accounts.
The Writing on the (Facebook) Wall: The Use of Social Networking Sites in Hiring
Decisions
Companies are beginning to start using Social Networking Sites, such as Facebook, to
help decide whether they should hire an individual. This practice, while widely unaccepted, is
becoming more mainstream. While using a potential candidate’s social networking site to
determine their character and gather information might work sometimes, the numbers show that
most of the time it doesn’t. There are too many different variables that can affect the situation.
One, it too easily leads to legal issues and unfair and unnecessary bias. This article perfectly
aligns with our study. Though it deals with social networking site, Facebook, it allows a great
amount of groundwork for the research we are about to do.
Use of Social Media by College Students: Relationship to Communication and Self-concept
Social media usage among college students affects communication with others, and their
self-concept. The research study was conducted with a questionnaire, which focused on the
personal use of social media, the online communication portrayed with friends and family, and
effects on self-concept. After the data was collected, the results indicated that all of the college

students that participated are using at least one form of social networking website. There was a
.586 Pearson correlation between usage of social media and communication with family and
friends. There was a .658 Pearson correlation between usage social media and self-concept
(Gitimu and Sponcil, 2012). There are many reasons for young adults to join social networking
websites as they try to communicate within their social system. The principal reason reported
was to maintain relationships with existing acquaintances that were already part of their social
network (Gitimu and Sponcil, 2012).
Using Social Media for Work: Losing Your Time or Improving Your Work?
Social Media has been gaining in popularity worldwide over the last years at an
increasingly growing rate. The introduction of social media in companies enables a new method
of communication among colleagues and with customers. Although social media are in the top of
the agenda for many companies to date, there seems to be very limited understanding of the
usage of social media for work purposes.
In this study, it was investigated whether employees make use of social media for work
purposes, what values increase this usage and if that usage is related with their performance. The
responses from 1,799 employees in the insurance industry were used to examine the impact of
social media on work. The results confirmed that in the case of social media for work, employees
make extended use of them no matter their age. Research also found that different values
influence employees to use more social media for their work, at least in the insurance sector.
This study confirms that there is an important relation between the use of social media and the
work performance.

Getting Social: The Impact of Social Networking Usage on Grades among College Students
In this article it illustrates how the use of social media sites, in the classroom is on the
rise, as is student time spent on exploring social networking sites. This study examines grade
differences among students at small, liberal arts colleges based on social media usage. The
research study was conducted by emailing an online questionnaire to over 2,000 patients at a
liberal arts college. The writers of this article concluded, “Social networking is here to stay, its
use has an impact on how students interact with others and on grades” (Stollak, Vandenberg,
Burklund, and Weiss 2011).
Methodology
We began our research by distributing surveys on the Youngstown State University
campus to individuals who attend classes in either 3000 or 4000 level classes. We got together
and came up with questions that would help our research the most. At one of our earlier group
meetings, we met to review and discuss questions. We decided the questions we came up with
would be our main questions but that only lead us to 8 of them. While reviewing, we began to
narrow down the survey questions in order to try and find the ones that were most relevant to our
research questions. After discussions, we compiled a total of 11 questions not including any
personal questions that could possibly reveal anyone’s identity. That would ultimately become
our survey.
As a group, we felt the length of our survey was important because it developed a strong
qualitative and quantitative background. We did not want a survey that was compiled of too
many questions because we felt that the participants would not give us solid, accurate results

while taking a lengthy survey. At the same time, we did not want to create a survey that was too
short because a survey that was too short could create a lack of usable information.
The next step was to test the survey on our research class. After the class took the survey,
they provided us with feedback that proved to be constructive and helpful in the final version of
our survey. The general response from the class was positive. Although there were a few flaws
that were pointed out. One main flaw with our survey was an issue regarding “too broad of
questions” and our class helped us get great revisions to those questions. The second issue our
classmates raised were we did not have an introduction at the top of our survey that let the
students know what they where filling out. We fixed this issue by creating a short paragraph
explaining what we would say before we handed out the surveys. Most likely some people would
go ahead and start filling the papers out before we finished with our directions. In doing this, we
made sure that our survey would have no grey area at all.
The next step was to submit our survey and paperwork to the university’s Institutional
Review Board (IRB). After the first submission, we had to make adjustments to our papers prior
to being given permission to conduct our research. In our first submission, we did not have
things worded correctly and old parts were left in with no title. Before the second submission we
met with Dr. Tyus and he helped us make the proper corrections so we could get our group
approved. We came together to make sure our paperwork contained the necessary information
and at that point, we then were permitted to proceed with the dispersal of our surveys.
As we entered our distribution phase of the data collection process, we set a number of
surveys that we thought was manageable to conduct. Our group agreed on 50 surveys per group
member. We all met to print and staple the surveys and set a week due date that the surveys had
to be brought back by. Most, but not all, of the distribution process was done individually. Of the

250 surveys that our group passed out, we received 200 completed surveys back to be used in our
data analysis. Once our self-imposed deadline for data collection passed, we compiled the
surveys and began to tally up the responses.
The first step in the data analysis was to tally up the “yes” and “no” answers for the first
8 questions. Each group member got a stack and started to tally the responses. After that we
combined the tallies onto one paper and put those into use for our results. Later on, we decided
we needed to separate the last few questions we originally decided to throw out. We went back
through the surveys and got the results that could really help our detail in the research. We made
tables for each group that placed the participants answers to the “yes” or “no” questions onto a
spreadsheet.
After, we began to look at the qualitative data. As a group, we looked at each individual
survey by reading through the responses from our subjects. Our goal was to find recurring
themes and content in the responses. Our next obstacle was to find the best way to separate the
paper so everyone could do an equal part. We each individually did a literature review with three
sources as well with our papers.
Results
Our study’s main focus was to examine university students’ attitudes toward social media
and how it affected their career placement after graduating. Our study was conducted at a
Northeastern Urban Research University campus. We used a non-probability survey and did not
account for race, gender, or other identifying factors. We surveyed juniors and seniors, only as
they would be more likely to be affected by the study’s topic. We wanted to see if students
noticed how or if at all their social media choices affected their ability to find work after college.

We surveyed 250 students. Of the students surveyed, 60% were junior status and 40%
were of senior status. Most of the surveys were administered in classrooms. The rest were
administered randomly to students throughout campus, taking special notice to make sure that
the students surveyed were of junior and senior status.

Discussion
Social media is everywhere. It is prevalent. It is relevant. And with proper care, can be
quite useful. We are now able to use social media as an addendum to the usual boring, drab
resume that most people send out when applying for a job. It is a glimpse into a person’s life.
That glimpse can be sculpted and molded to present a picture or idea that we wish to show to
future employers. The way we present ourselves on social media goes past our friends, family,
etc. It reaches our employers, etc.
Our results were not at all surprising. We hypothesized that a large majority of
students would have a vesting interest in how their social media affected their job placement,
but, that they wouldn’t know to what extent that effect was. Another hypothesis was that the
students, a majority being from the millennial generation, would have a more open approach to
how they used social media. We knew that it was used to connect with friends, family, etc. We
wondered if that openness and willingness to share would extend to strangers as well, in regards
to their social media use. Are we really as open as we are portrayed?

A majority of students had social media accounts. Out of the 250 students that we
surveyed, 78% of students used social media to connect with students, friends, family, and
anyone in between. One student mentioned, “Instead of giving a potential interest my phone
number, I would much rather give them my Facebook or Instagram. It’s much safer that way.”
Despite the openness that we hypothesized students would have towards social media, we
found an overwhelming amount of students were aware of the privacy settings—86% to be
exact. However, students were split on whether they kept their profile accounts private. 58% of
the students kept their accounts private but only 34% of students left their profiles public. A
student stated, “It doesn’t matter if someone looks at my stuff. I don’t post anything
incriminating so it doesn’t affect me. I don’t add people I don’t know. I don’t have anything to
hide.” The numbers agree. More than half of students surveyed, 69% said that they don’t add
people they didn’t know. As millennials, we may be open to sharing through apps such as
Instagram and Snapchat, but for the most part, that openness is only exclusive to those that are in
our circle, the people that we know.
Our reasoning for doing this survey was to see if students cared, noticed, or even thought
about whether or not their social media presence affected ability to find work after college. We
reasoned that some would, but, most won’t. That as juniors and seniors, how and what we posted
online was in the back of our minds. It’s not that we didn’t care. It’s more so that we didn’t know
we had to.
We live in a very high-tech driven world. Companies are now beginning to utilize social
media to keep up with their customers. From company Facebook pages to represent their
companies to loyalty apps to better entice customers; social media is becoming more and more
important. Of those surveyed 45% percent of students believed that they would utilize social

media in their given field of work. 20% of students thought that social media would affect their
future careers and 26% percent of students didn’t know. They weren’t sure. What did all of this
mean?
It means that while a good majority knew and understood the ramifications, a larger
portion were not aware of how a single post can affect one’s future. Of the students surveyed,
46% either didn’t know or didn’t care. Surprisingly, seventy percent of students believed that
interviewers looked at social media accounts during the hiring process.
We also surveyed student athletes. Of the 250 students surveyed, 12% of students were
student athletes. 66% percent of students were okay with administration following their accounts
closely. We hypothesized that while they a majority may have given consent, it was most likely
because they didn’t have a choice.
Out of those students that were currently working, 21% of students admitted to having
their employers ask them about their social media accounts. One student mentioned, “If my boss
never asked me about for my Facebook, I would never show him. It’s weird because if I don’t
show him, it makes it look like I’m hiding something and if I do show him, then I can’t post
anything that I want, just in case he looks at it.”
For some, “posting anything that I want” bridges on inappropriate content. We surveyed
students to see if they screen what they post. 31% of students surveyed said they did and felt that
it wouldn’t affect their future career. A larger majority, 68%, chose to not post “inappropriate”
content and believed it did have the possibility to affect their future career.
Conclusion
Over all the entire group worked well together, there were minor bumps in the road as expected
but we pulled through and got what we needed to done. We did well dividing things equally

among one another and the roles assigned to us seemed to fit our personality and our work
abilities. The research our group did was to see if students were aware of the effects that social
media has on their futures. We created a survey and passed them out to upper level classes, since
these students were more likely to graduate soon it seemed appropriate to make them our
candidates for this project. Over all, the surveys went well and majority of the students we
asked to take them answered the questions. The first question on the survey was asking what
social media sites people were using; the winning site was Facebook, followed by Instagram,
then twitter, and then the ‘other’ category that we included. It was not surprising to me that
Facebook and Instagram were the top two most popular sites. In our survey we included
questions asking about privacy settings and also about if people use them or watch what they
post online. It was surprising to see that majority of the people we surveyed answered ‘yes’
when asked if they knew about privacy settings and if they used them. We tested juniors and
seniors on this survey and to my surprise the end tally shows that we ended up with more juniors
than seniors, which wasn’t a big deal. I think we just thought we might end up with more seniors
then juniors after making visits to upper division classes.
In the end, the results that we ended up with showed that the majority of students we
interviewed with our survey are aware of the things they post online and they are also aware of
how to use privacy settings to help protect themselves.

References
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Lee, T. (2012). The legal and effective business use of social media in the workplace.
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Leftheriotis, I., & Giannakos, M. N. (2014). Using social media for work: Losing your
time or improving your work?. Computers in Human Behavior, 31134-142.
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Leonardi, P., & Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise social media:
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