Applications of Social Media by Digital Natives in the Workplace: An Exploratory Study in Indonesia

With the rapid development of the Internet, social media applications have achieved near ubiquitous penetration of the personal and social lives of digital natives. Nowadays, digital natives are entering the workplace in large numbers. Increasingly, we also see the use of social media for work purposes in professional life. In this research, we present preliminary findings into an investigation of how social media is used by digital natives in the work place in Indonesia. Drawing on data obtained from semi-structured interviews with eight Indonesian digital natives in various professional occupations and organisations, we identify both the social media applications used and their application contexts. We analyse the potential development of social media in the workplace and suggest how users can enhance work performance via social media applications. We also discuss the research implications before concluding the paper.