• Reuters, Monday, August 20, 2007 11 AM

Facebook could be costing employers billions of dollars, says a new study from Internet security firm SurfControl. Because socializing online is a waste of time and money, despite what other reports say about the networking and communication benefits of social networks. The firm, which used a sample of Australian users to conduct the study, said that Facebook users cost as much as $4 billion per year in lost productivity.

"It's so interactive that people just get addicted to watching their Facebook groups all the time," SurfControl chairman Richard Cullen told Australian radio. Cullen based his highly disputable findings on a typical Facebook user with an average salary spending an hour per day on the social network. If one person per day in every Aussie organization went to Facebook each day, socializing instead of working, it would cost firms $4 billion, collectively. Banning the social network was not the answer because socializing makes workers happy, and leaves them more likely to work longer hours.

Working longer hours doesn't cancel out the so-called lost productivity. You have to love these studies that assume that everyone works the same hours, earns the same amount and spends the same amount of time on a given site. What about the assumption that social networking is a time-waster? For certain industries like media, Facebook and other sites create a platform for people to discuss issues, ask questions and make new contacts.

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