Antecedents and consequences of social media group users' fatigue: A mixed-methods study under educational context

Abstract

Social media platforms have radically changed the education section in recent years. Along with benefits, the negative aspects of these tools have also begun to emerge and cannot be ignored. Based on the stress-strain–outcome model, this study examines the notion of fatigue in the context of teacher-parent social media groups through a mixed-methods approach. Among the three stressors (information overload, information irrelevance, and group member value unfit) that we identified in the qualitative content analysis, information overload, information irrelevance and group member value unfit were found significantly influence fatigue, which further leads to the user's intention to leave and mute the group in the quantitative study. By taking a negative approach, our study contributes to a better understanding of social media usage in the educational context. In addition to the theoretical contributions, the findings of the current study offer valuable practical insights for combating the social media fatigue phenomenon.