Overloaded yet addicted? A meta-analysis of the outcomes of social media overload

• This meta -analysis advances the understanding of the dimensions and outcomes of social media overload. • It explores the four dimensions of social media overload: information, social, communication and system feature overload. • The dimensions of social media overload influence both exhaustion and social media addiction. • Exhaustion reduces work performance and increases the intention to discontinue social media use. • Social media addiction decreases the discontinuance intention and hinders work performance. This meta-analysis advances the understanding of social media overload’s dimensions and outcomes. Drawing from the transactional view of technostress and the theory on self-regulation, it theorizes the role played by four dimensions of social media overload —information, social, communication, and system feature overload. Linked to exhaustion and addiction, these dimensions affect self-regulation. Although exhaustion reduces work performance and increases the intention to discontinue social media use, addiction decreases the discontinuance intention and hinders work performance. The study contributes to the information systems literature with an improved understanding of the relation between two literature streams—technostress and information technology addiction.