Heavier social media use is associated with lower academic performance in students.

Is it true that heavier social media use is associated with lower academic performance in students?

Partly. Several small, single-site studies partially support the claim: longer daily social media time was linked to lower subject scores among Grade 11 students in Addis Ababa, and excessive non-academic use was reported to harm performance in Bangladesh. Other studies found personal and social use had weak or non-significant relationships with performance, so the evidence covers only parts of the picture.

Verdict: CONTESTED PARTIAL · 4 sources for, 2 against · Last checked 2 Oct 2026

The private library was unavailable for some searches in this check. Missing library results are not evidence against the claim.

Sinha, S. (2026). Impact of Social Media on Students' Academic Performance in Bangladesh. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6330398

Abastas, L. A. & Tantiado, R. C. (2026). Usage of Social Media Platforms and Students’ Academic Performance. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.47191/ijmra/v9-i5-99

Zeleke, S. & Kibret, A. (2022). Social Media Use and Academic Performance among High School Students: Roles of Time Spent and Purpose of Use. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1505526/v1

Sharma, D. D. (2026). Influence of Social Media Usage on Students' Academic Performance and Study Habits: A Mixed-Method Analytical Study. zenodo.org. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20845557

Peters, S., Cruijsen, R. V. d., Aar, L. v. d., Spaans, J., Becht, A., & Crone, E. (2021). Social media use and the not-so-imaginary audience: Behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying the influence on self-concept. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2021.100921

Kumar, D. (2025). Exploring the Relationship between Social Media Use, Sociodemographic Variables, and Academic Performance among University Students. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5383174