Predicting perceived information overload from social media use: a machine learning approach

Abstract

The rapid growth of social media has intensified users’ exposure to large volumes of information, increasing the risk of perceived information overload. While prior studies have primarily examined this phenomenon using explanatory models, limited attention has been given to its prediction. This study aims to predict perceived information overload from social media use using a machine learning approach. Data were collected through a survey of 349 university students in Malaysian higher education institutions. Social media use across multiple platforms was used as input features, while perceived information overload was treated as a binary target variable. Several machine learning algorithms were evaluated, including decision tree, random forest, k-nearest neighbor, support vector machine, neural network, naïve Bayes, and logistic regression. The results indicate that social media usage patterns contain predictive value for identifying information overload, with the support vector machine demonstrating the strongest discriminative performance. The study contributes to the literature by complementing existing explanatory research with a predictive perspective and highlights the potential of machine learning techniques for early identification of information overload in social media environments.