The Impact of Social Media Overuse on Academic Stress Through Academic Procrastination Among College Students

Abstract

As social media becomes increasingly popular among college students, the effect that overuse of these websites has on college students’ academic functioning has been called into question. Academic stress has long been a common problem for students in higher education, which often is positively correlated with maladaptive academic behavior such as academic procrastination.  This study seeks to investigate the proposition that social media overuse will be positively related to academic stress,  and this relationship will be mediated by student procrastination. Social media overuse is defined as excessive, uncontrollable use of social networking websites that stimulates disruption of both the student‘s academic and non-academic life. Academic procrastination is defined as voluntary delay of an academic task despite adverse consequences.  This study will use a quantitative research design with data obtained from standardized self-report scales measuring social media overuse,  academic procrastination, and academic stress. The data will be analyzed for direct relationships between the variables and possible mediation by student procrastination.  As hypothesized,  social media overuse will significantly positively relate to academic procrastination and academic stress.  Through providing explanation about how overuse of social media impacts students’ academic job performance, this study aims to provide insight into how to encourage more healthy digital lifestyles for college students to reduce academic stress.