Adverse consequences of excessive social networking site use on academic performance: explaining underlying mechanism from stress perspective

As social networking sites (SNSs) become increasingly pervasive among students, educational information system (EIS) researchers begin to highlight the potential negative effect of SNSs for students. Despite such interest, scholars have paid little attention to the underlying mechanism of EIS to date. By employing two well-known theoretical models (namely, the transactional model of stress and the stressor–strain–outcome framework), we investigated the determinants of excessive SNS usage and how excessive use induces cognitive distraction and consequently influences the academic performance of the students. Using a survey of 505 university undergraduate students who are SNS users and the objective data of their cumulative grade point average, we confirmed four technology characteristics (socialization, social comparisons, enjoyment, and information seeking) as determinants of excessive use. Excessive use of SNS causes cognitive distraction among students, thereby affecting academic performance. Results also showed the interaction effect of the boundary condition, that is, cognitive–behavioral control, which mitigates the deleterious effect of excessive use in relation to cognitive distractions. The outcomes offer significant implications for the strategizing of managers and researchers to reduce psychological problems among SNS users.