'When Instagram gets too much': Exploring social media fatigue and its impact on students' engagement with online learning

Since early 2020, much of our daily life has moved online, with an unprecedent and rapid rise of online technology use. Universities enabled virtual learning in a multitude of ways, including the adoption of pedagogic strategies to mimic social media format. This trend towards more interactive, two-way, real time online learning has been claimed to facilitate a multitude of benefits (Dunn, 2013), including the development of employability skills. However, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that the heavy use of social media during the pandemic has led to “social media fatigue” (Zhang et al, 2021) especially among generation Z (Liu et al, 2021). Students may also be affected by “Zoom fatigue” (Ramachandran, 2021). This study aims to investigate if current students’ learning experience, particularly the intention to engage in online learning is impacted by these phenomena.