Monitoring media use as an inevitable life aspect of practically every individual in the 21st century has become one of the major issues for parents, employers, and educators.
Since the social media platforms and the World Web began to spread at the beginning of the third millennium, people became immediately engaged in the world of media. However, over the years, with representatives of both Generations Y and Z constituting the vast majority of workplaces, media has become a significant constraint in the way towards productivity. Hence, the means to control workplaces in terms of maximum efficiency has become a topic for ongoing discussion.
One of the ways to look at the issue is to assess it from the parental perspective as parents are now considered to be the ones most affected by the media influence. With the rapid development of responsible parenting, families are no longer allowed to simply restrict their children to do something. On the contrary, they should encourage their children’s autonomic desire to organize their priorities and spare time.
Thus, among the variety of theories concerning parental media control, self-determination theory (STD) is considered one of the most accepted and efficient. According to the theory, adolescents are more likely to make a decision when they believe it was an independent and autonomic choice rather than when they are compelled to act in a certain way. Such an approach concerning media use could be potentially implemented into the workplaces to estimate high levels of work productivity. When applied to older generations such as employees, STD is a beneficial method for not only organizing the workplace but for encouraging workers to make beneficial choices without strict supervision.
Another approach towards media use also concerns the parental-child relationship in the context of media use, focusing on TV and video games. According to the research, when parents define how much time their children spend watching TV and video games, they are not likely to take into this account the time they spent with their children. Hence, if children co-view TV with their parents, the time is not regarded as wasted. In such a way, while organizing a workplace, employers may consider co-viewing activities instead of workers spending time on media during working hours. Even if productivity is not dependent on such a pastime, the overall mood and sense of unity among the employees may increase.
The last but equally significant study on media consumption has shown that people, especially immigrants, tend to pay more attention to ethnic media due to their cultural identity. Thus, people seek diversity celebration in the new country by remaining connected to their native culture. When it comes to the workplace organization, embracing and respecting the variety of cultures among the employees is the key to a friendly atmosphere in the company and thus, better productivity and cooperation.
Taking everything into consideration, workplace organization is a crucial constituent of a successful company. The key to its productivity, however, lies in employees’ understanding of the value of their time. Once they are encouraged to spend it without insignificant distractions, both workers and employers will be satisfied with the company’s outcomes. Considering the information provided in the readings, two important questions for a discussion may be outlined.
The first question is whether social media in the context of today’s world is a major productivity constraint or a beneficial tool for raising awareness and finding inspiration. Another question concerns how the workplaces for Generation Z representatives, who cannot imagine the day of their lives without media, should differ from those of Generations Y and X.