Last week, when we read this Mashable article stating that 29 percent of Americans use Facebook during the workday, we were confused.

Only 29 percent?!

Oh, wait. Social media is not a must-have, must-do in all job descriptions. Right.

While 29 percent of Americans do use Facebook at work, another 20 percent can’t access it at all due to company restrictions. From the surface, banning social media at work would seem to make sense. No Facebook = more productivity, right? Perhaps not.

We’ve seen the reports of what Google Doodles can cost in productivity, and we’re not advocating spending three hours of your workday on Facebook (unless you’re actually paid to do so), but there seems to be use in midday social browsing.

Gone are the days of taking a break and milling around the water cooler. In this fast-moving, social world, it now seems that checking Facebook is the new way to recharge.

Social media is now how we keep up with friends and family, make after-work plans and connect with people in general – even a cubicle away. Things like viral videos give coworkers something to talk about and connect over.

If we had a dime for every time someone in the Magneto office said, “Hey, did you see that thing on YouTube?”, we’d have a lot of dimes. It’s how we keep up with current events, find inspiration and keep our creativity and focus fresh.

This CNN report suggests that by banning social media at work, the company conveys a “dictatorial” spirit in the workplace – or at least a slight air of distrust from management to employees. This seems to go against the growth of “workplace culture” we’ve been seeing recently.

Employees are going to take breaks. They’re recommended. We live in an age where information is everywhere, and social media is a main gate as to how we access it. Social media is as good for laughing at Grumpy Cat as it is for reading up on industry news, and either scenario is great for the productivity purposes we were worried about above. In short, there’s an unseen value in those Twitter breaks – and employers who block those sites may be missing the point and payoff.

Here at Magneto, we use social media to fuel our creativity and connect with our community. It’s about finding a useful article on branding and the best post-work happy hour spot in the same five minutes. We harness our Tumblr page or Pinterest boards into compilations of inspiration and have a good laugh at Grumpy Cat in the process. We put social media to work for us and our clients to help us stay informed about social trends and breaking news – and have our water cooler break all in one fell swoop.

Do you Facebook at work? How do you make social media work for you? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter at @MagnetoAgency.

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