Abstract:
Social media has transformed the way academic labourers socialise, network, and
communicate knowledge. As much as networking and visibility of scholarly
productions have been facilitated through these media, their overuse is increasingly
linked to behavioural addiction that destroys attention, productivity, and occupational
commitment. While social media addiction has been rigorously studied in global
contexts, in Sri Lanka, it remains a narrow focus of investigation. More critically,
studies on the repercussions of such addictive behaviour for academics who are
saddled with teaching, research, and knowledge dissemination duties are extremely
limited. Such a lack of empirical investigation points to a critical research gap that
this study seeks to address. The current study investigates the impact of social media
addiction on the work engagement of state university academics in Sri Lanka. A
quantitative methodology was followed using a structured 47-item questionnaire
adapted from the Social Media Addiction Scale for Adults (SMAS) and the Utrecht
Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Data were collected from a sample of 90
academics representing six universities, including Colombo, Peradeniya, Sri
Jayewardenepura, Kelaniya, Rajarata, and Sabaragamuwa. The sample represented
lecturers, senior lecturers, and professors from management, arts, science, and social
sciences faculties. Descriptive statistics revealed moderate levels of both social media
addiction and work engagement. Regression analysis confirmed that social media
addiction was a significant predictor of lower work engagement (β = –0.226, p =
0.002), explaining 10.5% of the variance (R² = 0.105). The study contributes by
filling the empirical gap on Sri Lankan academics, showing the adverse effect of
addictive digital habits on engagement, and extending theoretical insights from self-determination and conservation of resources theory
