Social Media Engagement and Cognitive Functions: Exploring Social Media, Mind Wandering, and Overexcitability in Higher Education

This study examined how social media is associated with mind wandering and emotional and intellectual overexcitability among college students. Understanding these relationships is important because excessive engagement with social media may influence attention, emotional regulation, and cognitive functioning during a critical stage of academic development. Data were collected from 904 students (260 females) using self-report measures of screen time, mind wandering, and overexcitability. The findings showed that students who spent more time on social media reported greater mental distraction, more frequent automatic thoughts, and higher levels of emotional and intellectual overexcitability. In addition, automatic thoughts and mental restlessness helped explain the relationship between social media use and psychological overexcitability. These results suggest that heavy social media use may contribute to difficulties in attentional control and emotional regulation among university students. Moreover, the study highlights the potential role of digital media environments in shaping cognitive and emotional experiences in young adults and contributes to a better understanding of the links among imagination, cognition, personality, and everyday technology use.