In this information age, there are three kinds of people. First, the youngest & in majority, are the Digital Natives – those who are tech-savvy. They understand & use the modern information technology tools & techniques quite well, as they have been well trained on it. Second, the Digital Immigrants, are the ones who are slowly adapting to the fast pace of the digital generation. They have had to put in great efforts to change their working styles as well as lifestyles, moving on with the times. Third, the Digital Retards, are the ones who don’t prefer to use digital technology and are not well acquainted with it. Mostly these are people who have lived majority of their lives in the era prior to the digital revolution. Though, you would find exceptions in all the three categories.

As the digital natives are in majority, in India, the Learning & Development styles need to be conducive to their liking & preferences. Social Media has become an integral part of the lives of these digital natives. In fact, most of the digital natives are living a virtual life parallel to the real world on Social Media. Due to this effective use of Social Media for Learning & Development in this era has & will prove to be fruitful for continual development of students as well as professionals.

Every Social Media Platform, has its own different application. For instance, Facebook has more social inclination and Linkedin has more professional inclination. For students, classroom is not confined to the four walls of a university, rather, the globe has become their classroom. Getting connected with professionals in the field of their interest, learning from their experiences, getting connected with companies / industries of their interest, knowing what the industries / companies are working on, what is expected from them if they would be working on similar projects for the company, etc, would go a long way in developing the skills & attributes for a successful career. For professionals, grasping from & contributing to the global developments of their field is very desirable for their career as well as for the organization that they are working for. It may be as an employee or as an owner. Any successful & renowned brand, has employees / leader who also have a good social & professional brand. For upcoming professionals, who seek to take that position in the organization, Social Media is a very comfortable & effective means to build up a similar effect among their fraternity as well as in the society. Hiring employees for key positions, assessing their thinking process, their social impact, their professional network, all can be done through social media.

Learning & development is a continuous process for professionals and at this hour, as we move towards Digital India, Social Media has become one of the most important skills that each professional will have to harness.