An investigation of the social media overload and academic performance

In the realm of online learning, social media is emerging as an indispensable tool for student learning. While social media offers benefits for students, it is important to acknowledge that it can also exert adverse effects on them. Drawing inspiration from stress dynamics, coping models, and existing social media literature, our study delves into the ways in which technical stressors (specifically, techno-invasion and techno-overload) and social stressors (encompassing the sense of belonging, social interaction, and social support) give rise to psychological stress among students who excessively depend on social media for learning. This heightened stress subsequently leads to feelings of exhaustion and perceived irreplaceability, ultimately impacting their behavioral outcomes, notably academic performance. The model was tested using survey data collected from a sample of 249 university students in China. From the perspective of technical and social systems, this study presents that excessive usage of social media has the potential to impact the students' academic performance by contributing to their exhaustion and perceived irreplaceability.