Mindfulness buffers the negative effects of social media overuse on work effort through state self-control during crisis: a daily diary study

Ellen Choi, Erica Carleton, Megan Walsh and Amanda Hancock

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2025, vol. 44, issue 13, 3115-3132

Abstract: To examine the impact of social media overuse on work effort amidst crisis, we apply Conservation of Resources theory to explain how social media acts as an internal stressor that depletes daily self-regulatory resources, resulting in lower daily work effort. Further, we explore whether daily mindfulness acts as a personal resource that individuals can draw from to buffer the negative effects of social media on organisational outcomes. To examine our theoretical model, we use a type of experience sampling methodology (ESM). We followed 227 participants partaking in a 30-day mindfulness challenge during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (May/June 2020) through a daily diary study resulting in 3,851 data points at the within-person level. We examined the association between daily social media overuse and employee work effort through the mediating mechanism of daily state self-control capacity and daily mindfulness as a potential moderator of this relationship. Results suggest that daily social media overuse was related to decreased daily work effort through reduced state self-control; however, participants experienced less decline in work effort following social media overuse on days that they were more mindful, suggesting mindfulness acts as a personal resource that buffers the strain on daily state self-control capacity.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2024.2433031

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