Balancing The Digital Distraction: Cyberloafing And Its Consequences For Academic Performance

Cyberloafing is an action of involving in non-work or non-academic related online activities during work or study hours, specifically involving in social media, entertainment, or browsing unrelated to academic tasks. Such behavior frequently occurs in educational settings, where students find themselves distracted by the use of internet, which negatively affects their focus, and reduces productivity. On the other hand, Academic performance, is defined as the extent to which a student achieves their educational goals, their performance has been assessed through marks grades, assignments, and overall academic success. This study investigates the influence of cyberloafing on academic performance among 290 college students from Chandigarh, using the Cognitive Load Theory as the theoretical framework. According to this theory, students’ behavior is influenced by extraneous, germane and intrinsic cognitive load. This study uses SmartPLS for data analysis, examining the relationships between cyberloafing and academic performance with moderation effect of fear of missing out. The findings suggest that cyberloafing negatively impacts academic performance. These insights can help to create strategies which aimed at reducing cyberloafing behaviors in academic settings among students, which could lead to improving students' performance.