IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ON STUDENTS AND TASK’ PERFORMANCE DURING COVID-19

In today’s world, social networking has emerged as a highly desirable product, but the use of these social networking sites affects the physical and mental health of people. Therefore, this study aims to find the impact of excessive use of social networking sites (ESNS) on students’ task performance (STP) by mediating the role of task distraction (TD). Further, this study explores the moderating role of locus of control (internal and external) on the ESNS-TD relationship. For this purpose, data has been collected from 226 students enrolled in public sector universities in metropolitan cities of Pakistan through the survey. The findings show that excessive use of social networking sites significantly decreases students’ performance. Task distraction partially mediates the ESNS-STP relationship. Further, the results show that only the external locus of control moderates the ESNS-TD relationship. By analyzing the consequences of excessive use of SNSs it raises teachers’ and scholars’ concerns about harmful aspects of Internet use. This study reports that limited use of social networking sites is beneficial for students’ performance.