Workers turn to social media for a range of reasons while at work, with taking a mental break being among the most common, according to the survey by Pew Research Centre.
Today's workers incorporate social media into a wide range of activities while on the job. Some of these activities are explicitly professional or job-related, while others are more personal in nature, researchers said.
The survey asked Americans who are employed full- or part-time about eight different ways they might use social media while on the job and found that 34 per cent use it at work to take a mental break from the job.
Seventeen per cent of workers say they use social media to build or strengthen personal relationships at work.
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Some 14 per cent of workers have found information on social media that has improved their professional opinion of a colleague; at the same time, a similar share (16 per cent) have found information on social media that has lowered their professional opinion of a colleague, researchers said.
Some 23 per cent of workers aged 18 to 29 have discovered information on social media that improved their professional opinion of a colleague, researchers said.
By comparison, just 12 per cent of workers aged 30 to 49 and 9 per cent of workers ages 50 to 64 have experienced this.
Twelve per cent of employees each used social media to ask work-related questions of people outside their organisation, as well as to ask such questions of people inside their organisation, researchers said.
The survey found that one-quarter of workers never use the internet for work-related tasks in the course of a typical day.