Psychological Consequences of Excessive Social Media Use on Students’ Concentration, Motivation, and Academic Performance.
Keywords:
Social media, excessive use, concentration, academic motivation, academic performance, students, qualitative research.Abstract
This study aimed to explain high school students’ lived experiences of the psychological consequences of excessive social media use on concentration, academic motivation, and educational performance. This qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis. Participants were 24 high school students from Tehran, selected through purposive sampling with maximum variation in gender, grade level, school type, and intensity of social media use. The inclusion criterion was daily non-academic social media use of more than three hours and willingness to share personal experiences. Data were collected exclusively through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Data collection continued until theoretical saturation was achieved; saturation emerged at the twenty-first interview, and three additional interviews were conducted to ensure data adequacy. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo software. To enhance trustworthiness, member checking, peer review, audit trail documentation, and thick contextual description were used. Data analysis led to four main categories: erosion of concentration and cognitive fragmentation, weakening of academic motivation and dominance of immediate digital rewards, disruption of study routines and sleep patterns, and decline in academic performance accompanied by emotional pressure. Students reported that notifications, continuous scrolling, social comparison, fear of missing out, and nighttime social media use reduced sustained attention, delayed homework completion, weakened learning quality, diminished academic enthusiasm, and intensified academic anxiety. Although some participants acknowledged limited educational benefits of social media, they emphasized that lack of digital self-regulation often overshadowed its potential advantages. Excessive social media use, as experienced by students, is not merely a leisure activity; it is intertwined with cognitive, motivational, emotional, and behavioral mechanisms that may undermine concentration, study persistence, academic self-efficacy, and school performance. The findings highlight the need for school-based digital literacy programs, self-regulation training, time management education, sleep hygiene interventions, and supportive counseling practices aimed at promoting healthy and purposeful social media use among students.
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