Alumni use social media sites to stay in touch

Sixty percent said they used the sites for professional networking, 33 percent as part of their daily work duties and 26 percent for job searching.

Facebook was a favorite site of 63 percent of respondents, followed by LinkedIn and Twitter. Forty-four percent reported they spend 30 to 60 minutes online daily, with 37 percent spending 30 minutes or less, and 7 and 4 percent spending one to four hours and all day, respectively. 

“Social networking has allowed me to reconnect with friends and family who I wouldn’t have been able to touch base with,” said one participant in the poll. “I truly enjoy Facebook, in moderation. Life is for living not being glued to your computer.”

Other positive comments about the impact of social networking included “reconnecting with old friends from UWO,” “keeping in touch with someone or an entire group in an instant without much effort” and “meeting some interesting people who have things in common with me that I likely never would have met otherwise.”

One respondent reported finding success within six months of setting up a LinkedIn account. “I’ve been contacted by two recruiters looking for candidates.”

But not all respondents were social media fans. One respondent noted, “It is a time suck.”

Another said, “Having a Facebook page was a total waste of my time, so after three months of reading posts by people who have nothing more important in their life than posting to Facebook, I canceled my account.”