In this day and age words and phrases such as social media, distraction, and the workplace are often a cause for concern for employers. Yes it sucks, especially if you’re paying for staff that are more interested in updating their social status rather than updating customer accounts, but unless you want to be labelled a “Social Nazi” or be referred to as one of the many Fascist dictators that have plagued our planet in the past 100 years, then you have to put up with it.

So, how often does social media distract you at work? Well, according to RedEApp, it’s more than you think. The company that developed the below infographic details how social media “interruptions” impact employee productivity.

Some notable findings, outlined in the infographic, show that employees are interrupted approximately once every 10 and a half minutes; take an average of 23 minutes to return to an assigned task; and the amount of time Facebook, Twitter, and email suck out of your day.

Furthermore, the impact of these interruptions is costing the American economy almost $650 billion dollars a year. And that is quite frightening. 

“Is it possible to be too connected in this digital age?” RedEApp asks. Put quite simply yes, according to research data, but if we’re all this easily distracted and we’re all costing our own economies billions of dollars a year, surely something needs to be done. What exactly, I don’t know. What do you think?