569096

research-article2015

HPQ0010.1177/1359105315569096Journal of Health PsychologyCharoensukmongkol

Article

Mindful Facebooking: The

moderating role of mindfulness
on the relationship between social
media use intensity at work and
burnout

Journal of Health Psychology

2016, Vol. 21(9) 19661980
The Author(s) 2015
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1359105315569096
hpq.sagepub.com

Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol

Abstract
Research on the role of social media use in the workplace has gained more interest, yet little is known
about personal characteristics that might influence the outcomes that employees experience when they
use social media during work. This research aims to investigate the impact of the intensity of social media
use at work on three aspects of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal
accomplishment. Results from partial least squares regression found that mindfulness significantly mediated
the relationship between the intensity of social media use at work on emotional exhaustion and lack of
personal accomplishment. These findings suggest that using social media during work tends to increase
burnout in employees who have a low level of mindfulness, but it lowers burnout in employees who have a
high level of mindfulness.

Keywords
burnout, mindfulness, social media

Introduction
The topic about the impact of social media
access in the workplace is an issue that has
gained more interest among scholars and organizations. Despite negative consequences that
organizations are concerned with when employees spend work time on social media (Gaudin,
2009), one stream of research found that using
social media at work may not necessarily be
counterproductive to work, but rather it helps
increase job satisfaction and job performance
(Charoensukmongkol, 2014a; Moqbel etal.,
2013). Nonetheless, little is known about some
personal characteristics that might influence the

outcomes that occur from using social media

during work hours.
Given this gap in literature, this research
aims to investigate the impact of the intensity
International College of National Institute of
Development Administration, Thailand
Corresponding author:
Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol, International College of
National Institute of Development Administration, 118
Moo3, Sereethai Road, Klong-Chan, Bangkapi, Bangkok
10240, Thailand.
Email: peerayuth@outlook.com

1967

Charoensukmongkol
of social media use at work on three aspects of
burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and
lack of personal accomplishment. Burnout is
selected as the outcome variable because it is
the problem that reduces employee motivation
and causes detrimental impacts to organizations (Hakanen and Schaufeli, 2012; Leung
etal., 2011; Yom, 2013). Nonetheless, whether
using social media at work actually reduces or
creates burnout is an issue that is still unclear.
In this study, the author is also interested in
exploring the moderating effect of mindfulness. Mindfulness represents the ability of an
individual to bring a certain quality of attention
to moment-by-moment experience in a nonjudgmental way (Brown and Ryan, 2003). It is
a concept that has received more attention from
scholars in several areas, as it has been found to
promote psychological wellness and enhance
performance (Leroy etal., 2013; Reb etal.,
2015). In particular, the gist of this research is
that the ability to be attentive to own thoughts,
emotions, and behaviors can help individuals
to monitor their social media use. Also, the
nonjudgmental aspect of mindfulness can help
prevent them from getting carried away easily
by favorable and unfavorable experience when
using social media. Thus, the study postulates
that using social media at work can benefit
employees with a high level of mindfulness but
can be harmful if employees lack mindfulness.
Results from this study will provide extra contribution to literature about the impact of social
media use in the workplace. The findings will
offer additional insight about some personal
characteristics that influence the outcomes of
using social media during work.

The first aspect of burnout is emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion is a form of mental
fatigue that happens when employees feel that
they lack the energy and motivation to perform
their work (Kammeyer-Mueller etal., 2016).
The second aspect of burnout is depersonalization. It is the feeling of cynicism that causes
employees to develop excessively detached
behavior toward others (Shih etal., 2013). The
third aspect of burnout is lack of personal
accomplishment. It is the loss of efficacy, which
makes employees feel that their contribution is
not worthwhile for the organization.
Among these three components of burnout,
many scholars argue that emotional exhaustion
is the core component in the burnout process
that will lead to other components (Boles etal.,
1997; Maslach, 1982). In particular, Shih etal.
(2013) stated that the most obvious manifestation of the syndrome with emotional exhaustion
as the trigger and depersonalization and diminished personal accomplishment developing
sequentially thereafter. This sequence of burnout process was also empirically supported in
several studies (Shih etal., 2013; Leiter and
Meechan, 1986). Therefore, to be consistent
with previous research, the following hypotheses are suggested:

Literature review

So far, there is no concrete empirical evidence

to confirm whether using social media at work
can make employees experience more or less
burnout. On the positive side, studies have
shown that using social media during work
can help employees relax from the stress that
they experience from work (Schmer and
Buchwald, 2012). Theoretically, this positive
contribution of social media can be explained

Burnout
Burnout can be understood as a negative, jobrelated psychological state that occurs when
employees experience stress for a prolonged
period of time (Maslach etal., 2011). Maslach
(1993) conceptualized burnout as a multidimensional construct consisting of three aspects.

Hypothesis 1: Emotional exhaustion positively relates with depersonalization.

Hypothesis 2: Depersonalization positively
relates with lack of personal accomplishment.

Intensity of social media use at work

and burnout

1968
by the job-demands-resources model, which
posits that employees who experience unfavorable work conditions need to rely on some
sort of support to buffer themselves from
stress perception (Demerouti and Bakker,
2011; Ren etal., 2013).
First, the opportunity to interact with family,
friends, or contacts in their social media account
can be considered a source of social support that
can help alleviate emotional exhaustion (Nabi
etal., 2013). In particular, Moqbel etal. (2013)
argued that online interaction with family and
friends can help lessen worklife conflict, which
is a major source of work stress. Second, social
media can reduce depersonalization because it
serves as the alternative communication channel
that employees can use to interact with others. In
particular, employees who feel uncomfortable
or lack motivation to have face-to-face contact
can rely on online social media for communication. This role of social media is consistent with
the social compensation hypothesis (Schouten
etal., 2007), which predicts that individuals
who struggle to make social connections in faceto-face interactions will use the Internet as a
place to enhance their interpersonal lives by
forging social relationships online (Gosling
etal., 2011). It is also consistent with studies
that show that people who are unwilling to communicate in real life tended to have a high tendency to use social media to socialize with
others (Orr etal., 2009; Sheldon, 2008).
Kalpidou etal. (2011) also found that social
media can facilitate social adjustment. Third, it
is possible that social support received from
interacting with family and friends in social
media can provide encouragement for employees. For example, Valkenburg etal. (2006) found
that positive feedback that individuals receive in
their social network site enhances their selfesteem and well-being. The contribution of
social media in helping reduce burnout is also
consistent with studies that confirmed the positive association between social media use at
work and job satisfaction (Charoensukmongkol,
2014a; Moqbel etal., 2013). Considering all
theoretical and empirical support, the hypotheses proposed are as follows:

Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)

Hypothesis 3: The intensity of social media
use at work reduces (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of
personal accomplishment.
Despite the positive contributions of social
media mentioned previously, it is also possible
that using social media during work can
adversely cause employees to experience more
burnout. Therefore, competing hypotheses
about the negative role of social media on burnout are proposed. In particular, using social
media during work can cause distraction, and
that can affect the ability of employees to focus
on their work (Junco, 2012) and, as a result, can
make employees experience work stress. Using
social media can also lead to more depersonalization because online communication reduces
interpersonal interactions that employees have
with others. Thus, those who extensively use
social media may lack motivation to interact
with others in real life. Finally, it is also possible that using social media at work can cause
employees to feel lack of personal accomplishment. For example, Valkenburg etal. (2006)
suggested that people tended to experience
lower self-esteem when they received negative
feedbacks from friends in social media.
Considering these negative outcomes caused by
social media, the following are presented as
competing hypotheses:
Hypothesis 4: The intensity of social media
use at work increases (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of
personal accomplishment.

The moderating role of mindfulness

This research argues that whether using social
media at work positively or negatively affects
burnout depends on the level of mindfulness that
employees possess. Fundamentally, the concept
of mindfulness is rooted from the Buddhist meditation practice. Mindfulness is defined as the
ability to bring ones complete attention to the
experiences occurring in the present moment, in
a nonjudgmental or accepting way (Leroy etal.,

1969

Charoensukmongkol
2013). In general, the ability to be aware of what
we are experiencing moment-to-moment without being colored by our own judgment is the
key element that allows us to understand the
impermanent nature of thought, emotions, and
sensations that come to us, so that we are not
affected by them. The philosophy behind mindfulness is that attachments lead to sufferings; if
we acknowledge what we are experiencing nonjudgmentally, those experiences, whether pleasant or unpleasant, will just come and go; they
cannot affect us because our mind does not
develop attachments to them. Literature has
shown that mindfulness not only promotes psychological well-being (Brown and Ryan, 2003;
Weinstein etal., 2009), but also benefits workrelated outcomes (Reb etal., 2013). For example, Hlsheger etal. (2013) found that mindful
employees could effectively regulate negative
emotions and that made them cope well with
work stress. Leroy etal. (2013) found that mindfulness enhanced work engagement through
authentic functioning. Charoensukmongkol
(2014b) found that employees who engaged in
mindfulness training tended to choose problemfocused copings rather than maladaptive copings
to deal with work stress.
Given the benefit of mindfulness that was
found to enhance the ability of individuals to
monitor their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
and to manage them effectively, the author
argues that it can moderate the impact that using
social media at work has on burnout. Specifically,
employees with a high level of mindfulness are
proposed as the group that will obtain more benefits from using social media at work, while
those who lack mindfulness tend to be the group
that is negatively affected by social media use.
Given that mindful employees tend to be aware
of activities they are doing (Brown and Ryan,
2003), it is less likely for them to get carried
away by social media. Mindfulness in this sense
can make employees realize about the limit of
using social media during work. Although they
enjoy the social media experience, they do not
attach to it. They will use it only to the level that
makes them relax so that they can be productive
at work. For this reason, their social media use at

work can lower burnout. Conversely, when

employees are not aware of what they are doing,
they are more likely to get carried away easily
when they use social media during work. In particular, using social media mindlessly can potentially lead to social media addiction (Andreassen
etal., 2012). Those who lack mindfulness would
have difficulty controlling their social media use
behavior (Kuss and Griffiths, 2011). This behavior can negatively affect personal life and work.
For example, when they enjoy the social media
experience, they feel less motivated to work and
do not want to socialize with others outside the
social media world. In fact, studies suggested
that mindfulness training is regarded as an effective intervention that helps people lessen behavioral addiction (Shonin etal., 2014); thus,
mindfulness can be a factor that might buffer
employees from these negative outcomes.
Finally, because mindfulness was found to help
individuals effectively regulate negative thoughts
and emotions (Hlsheger etal., 2013), mindful
employees tend to be less affected by the negative feedbacks they received in their social media
as suggested by Valkenburg etal. (2006).
Given the prior arguments regarding the
benefit of mindfulness, the author hypothesizes
that for employees who have a high level of
mindfulness, the intensity of social media use at
work will lower burnout; on the other hand, for
those with a low level of mindfulness, the intensity of social media use at work will cause more
burnout. Therefore, the following hypotheses
are presented:
Hypothesis 5: Mindfulness moderates the
relationship between the intensity of social
media use at work and (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) lack of
personal accomplishment.

Methods
Samples and data collection
Participants for this research are employees
who work for companies in Bangkok, Thailand.
There are 13 companies from three main

1970

Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)

industries (including manufacturing, service,

and health care) from which the data were collected. Supervisors in each firm were personally contacted by the author and were asked to
allow their employees participate in the study.
After those supervisors agreed, they were asked
to indicate the number of employees who
worked in their organization. In total, 279 sets
of questionnaires were distributed to these companies. The respondents were informed that
participation in the research is voluntary and
anonymous. Of this amount, 211 surveys were
completely filled and were collected back by
the author in person, yielding a 76percent
response rate. Demographic and work-related
information of the samples, as well as the
devices that they mainly used to access social
media sites at work, are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Demographic and work characteristics

of samples.

Measures

Salary

The intensity of social media use during work

was measured using the modified version of the
scale originally developed by Ellison etal.
(2007). The original scale was designed specifically to measure perceptions people have
regarding their personal levels of attachment to
Facebook. The author made an adjustment by
replacing Facebook with social networking
and included Facebook and MySpace as examples to clarify the public type of social media.
Sample items include At work, social networking sites have become part of my daily
routine and At work, I feel out of touch when
I havent logged on to social networking sites
for a while. This scale has been used in previous research (Charoensukmongkol, 2014a;
Moqbel etal., 2013). All items were scored on
five-point rating scale, ranging from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Mindfulness was measured using the
Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)
developed by Gangadharbatla (2008). The scale
consists of 15 questions. Sample items include I
could be experiencing some emotion and not be
conscious of it until sometime later and I break
or spill things because of carelessness, not paying attention, or thinking of something else.

Gender

Age (in
years)
Educational
level

Type of
organization

Job tenure
(in years)

Male: 96 (45%)
Female: 107 (50%)
Missing data: 8 (5%)
Mean: 32.55
Standard deviation: 16.66
Primary school: 1 (0.5%)
Secondary school: 6 (3%)
Vocational certificate: 1 (0.5%)
High vocational certificate:
21 (10%)
Diploma: 4 (2%)
Bachelor degree: 134 (63%)
Master degree: 33 (15%)
Doctoral degree: 1 (0.5%)
Missing data: 10 (5.5%)
Manufacturing: 42 (20%)
Service: 62 (30%)
Health care: 107 (50%)
Less than 10,000baht: 9 (4%)
10,00115,000baht: 44 (21%)
15,00120,000baht: 44 (21%)
20,00125,000baht: 24 (11%)
25,00130,000baht: 24 (11%)
30,00135,000baht: 15 (7%)
35,00140,000baht: 15 (7%)
45,00150,000baht: 7 (3%)
More than 50,001baht: 12 (6%)
Missing data: 17 (9%)
Mean: 5.29
Standard deviation: 5.69

They were scored on a five-point frequency

scale, ranging from 1 (almost always) to 5
(almost never); thereby making low score represents lack of mindfulness.
Three aspects of burnout were measured
using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)
developed by Maslach and Jackson (1981).
Emotional exhaustion consists of five items.
Sample items include I feel emotionally
drained from my work and I feel used up at
the end of the workday. Depersonalization
consists of five items. Sample items include
Ive become more callous toward people since
I took this job and I worry that this job is
hardening me emotionally. Lack of personal

Charoensukmongkol
accomplishment consists of six items. Sample
items include In my opinion, I am good at my
job, and I doubt the significance of my work
(reversed). All items were scored on five-point
rating scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree)
to 5 (strongly agree). All measurement items
are shown in Appendix I.
Demographic and job-related factors that
might associate with burnout were included in
the model as control variables. These factors
are age, gender, education, job demands, job
position, working class, salary, and job tenure.
Age and job tenure were measured in years;
gender was measured as a dummy variable
(male was coded 1, female was coded 0); working class was measured as a dummy variable
(white-collar employee was coded 1, blue-collar
employee was coded 0); and education, job
position, and salary were measured ordinally.
The factor Job demands was measured using
five items from the Job Content Questionnaire
survey developed by Karasek etal. (1998). This
construct was measured in terms of quantitative
workload (e.g. work hard, work fast). They
were measured using Likert scale ranging from
1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Data analysis
Data analysis was performed using partial least
squares (PLS) regression. PLS is a statistical
technique that provides higher flexibility than
covariance-based structural equation modeling
(SEM) because it is not necessary that the data
need to be normally distributed, plus PLS also
allows smaller sample sizes in the analysis
(Maslach, 1993). PLS regression was performed using WarpPLS version 3.0 developed
by Kock (2012).

Results
The preliminary analysis was performed before
PLS model estimation. First, the author performed the validity check for the intensity of
social media use at work, job demands, and job
performance, all of which were measured as
reflective latent variables. Convergent validity

1971
was conducted using factor loading estimation.
Hair etal. (2009) suggested a minimum of .5
for good convergent validity. The analysis indicated that the factor loadings of all constructs,
except for one indicator of mindfulness, meet
this minimum requirement. Thus, the indicator
that has low loading was removed from the
model. Then, discriminant validity test was
conducted by evaluating the average variance
extracted (AVE) of the construct. In order to
have good discriminant validity, Fornell and
Larcker (1981) suggested that the square root of
AVE of the construct must be greater than other
correlations involved in that construct. Table 2
reports correlations among all variables as well
as the square root of AVEs. Overall, the results
from AVE analysis satisfy this condition. Next,
the reliability analysis was performed by evaluating Cronbachs alpha () coefficient and composite reliability coefficient. The results in
Table 2 show that all reliability coefficients
exceed .7 as recommended by Fornell and
Larcker (1981). The model fit indices also suggest that the data fit the model well (average
path coefficient (APC)=.11, p<.001; average
R-squared (ARS)=.253, p<.001; average variance inflation factor (AVIF)=1.358).
Next, the variance inflation factor (VIF)
analysis was performed to check for multicollinearity. This research employed the full VIF
test, which offers more advantage than the regular VIF test because it allows lateral and horizontal collinearity to be assessed simultaneously
(Gosling etal., 2011). Petter etal. (2007) recommended that all full VIF indicators should be
lower than 3.3 to ensure that multicollinearity is
not a key issue in the model estimation. The
analysis shows that full VIF indicators range
from 1.12 to 2.134, which are lower than the
maximum threshold.
Finally, the analysis of common method bias
(CMB) was performed. Kock and Lynn (2012)
proposed that the full VIF test can be used as a
technique that is similar to the CMB test used in
covariance-based SEM. They suggested that
CMB can be a serious issue if the full VIF value
is higher than 3.3. Since all full VIF indicators
are lower than this recommended value, this

.877
.901
.922
.894
.838

.871

.831
.881
.893
.849
.758

.815

DP

LPA

AGE

GEN

EDU

JP

(.738) .206** .168*

.036
.103
.058 .185** .018 .036
(.629) .405** .376** .209** .009 .059
.057 .101
(.838)
.466** .013
.109 .193** .074 .009
(.795)
.275
.091 .062
.116 .122
(.715)
.004 .064
.088 .194**
(1)
.055
.030 .323**
(1)
.079 .020
(1)
.179**
(1)

EX

.048
.116
.345**
.126
.081
.086
.071
.044
.001
(.759)

JD

.559**
.044
.016
.059
.091
.094
.034
.072
.003
.001
(1)

SRW

.082
.053
.216**
.146*
.050
.384**
.070
.339**
.509**
.097
.034
(1)

SAL

.019
.069
.116
.078
.092
.571**
.049
.072
.257**
.126
.033
.394**
(1)

JT

.086
.030
.008
.062
.015
.023
.153*
.006
.038
.005
.046
.148*
.114
(1)

GAD

.219**
.101
.123
.025
.139*
.171*
.124
.025
.041
.039
.065
.070
.065
.025
(1)

AL

.032
.000
.118
.116
.045
.053
.111
.027
.028
.151*
.016
.217**
.125
.190**
.110
(1)

WC

SMUI: social media use intensity at work; MFN: mindfulness; EX: emotional exhaustion; DP: depersonalization; LPA: lack of personal accomplishment; AGE: age; GEN: gender dummy variable (male was
coded 1); EDU: education; JP: job position; JD: job demands; SRW: extent to which social media use is related to work; SAL: salary; JT: job tenure; GAD: the extent to which social media are accessed
to mobile gadget; AL: policy that prohibits social media at work (allow was coded 1); WC: working-class dummy variable (white-collar worker was coded 1).
Spearman rank correlation coefficients are reported.
Square roots of average variance extracted of latent variables are shown in the parentheses.
**p<.01; *p<.05.

SMUI
MFN
EX
DP
LPA
AGE
GEN
EDU
JP
JD
SRW
SAL
JT
GAD
AL
WC

Composite Cronbachs SMUI MFN

alpha
reliability
coefficients coefficients

Table 2. Correlation among variables and square root of average variance extracted.

1972
Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)

1973

Charoensukmongkol

R2=.289
Mindfulness

Emotional
exhaustion

-.176*
.207**
-.148*
.474***

.133

R =.293
Social media use
intensity at work

.038

Depersonalization

.301***
-.066
Lack of personal
accomplishment
2

R =.19

Figure 1. Results from PLS regression analysis.

Standardized coefficients are reported.

Solid lines represent significant paths.
Control variables include age, gender, education, job position, job tenure, salary, working class, job demands, the extent
to which social media are used related to work, policy prohibiting social media at work, and mean by which social media
are accessed.
All control variables are pointed to three dependent variables.
*p<.05; **p<.01; ***p<.001.

condition is satisfactory. In addition, the Harman

one-factor test suggested by Podsakoff etal.
(2003) was performed, and the results suggest
that the model fit indices become poorer than
the original model. Overall, these findings provide some clue that CMB may not be a serious
issue in the analysis.
Figure 1 reports the results of the PLS regression analysis. The standardized coefficient and t
values were calculated using a bootstrap resampling technique (Efron, 1979). This study used a
resampling procedure with 100 subsamples, as
recommended by Efron etal. (2004). Missing
data, which were less than 10percent of the total

data, were automatically replaced with the mean

values by the software (Little and Rubin, 1987).
Hypothesis 1 predicted that emotional
exhaustion will positively associate with depersonalization. The result significantly confirms
their positive link (=.474; p<.001). Thus,
hypothesis 1 is supported. Hypothesis 2 predicted that depersonalization will positively
associate with lack of personal accomplishment. The result also significantly confirms
their positive link (=.301; p<.001). Thus,
hypothesis 2 is strongly supported.
Hypothesis 3(a), (b), and (c) predicted that
the intensity of social media use at work will

1974
negatively associate with emotional exhaustion,
cynical, and lack of personal accomplishment,
respectively, whereas hypothesis 4(a), (b), and
(c) predicted the positive associations. Results
from PLS estimation indicate that the intensity
of social media use at work positively associates with emotional exhaustion (=.207;
p
=
.004) and depersonalization (=.038;
p=.313) but negatively associates with lack of
personal accomplishment (=(.066; p=.201).
However, only the association with emotional
exhaustion is statistically significant. Therefore,
only hypothesis 3(a) is supported.
Hypothesis 5(a), (b), and (c) predicted that
mindfulness moderates the relationship between
the intensity of social media use at work and
emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and
lack of personal accomplishment, respectively.
The results show that the moderating role of
mindfulness is negative and statistically significant for emotional exhaustion (=(.176; p=.013)
and depersonalization (=(.148; p=.036). On
the other hand, the moderating role of mindfulness is positive for lack of personal accomplishment (=.133; p=.054), but it is not
statistically significant. These results suggest
that mindfulness lessens the positive relationships that the intensity of social media use at
work has with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Therefore, only hypothesis 5(a) and
(b) are supported.
Figure 2 presents the data plots that illustrate
the moderating role that mindfulness has on the
links between the intensity of social media use at
work and three burnout aspects. The data plots
indicate that the intensity of social media use at
work negatively associates with emotional
exhaustion and depersonalization only for the
group that has a high level of mindfulness, but it
positively associates with them for the group that
has a low level of mindfulness. However, there is
no difference in the relationship pattern for lack
of personal accomplishment.
Finally, the significant relationships between
control variables and burnout aspects are found
as the following. Emotional exhaustion positively associates with job demands (=.34;
p<.001) and negatively associates with the

Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)

male dummy variable (=(.107; p=.049), job
position (=.141; p
=
.024), the extent to
which social media use is related to work
(=(.112; p
=
.041), and policy that allows
social media access in a workplace (=(.201;
p<.001). Depersonalization positively associates with the male dummy variable (=.132;
p=.016) and job position (=.137; p=.048).
Lack of personal accomplishment positively
associates with job position (=.22; p=.006)
and negatively associates with policies that
allow social media access in a workplace
(=(.112; p=.046).

Discussion
This study aims to investigate the effect of the
intensity of social media use at work on three
aspects of burnout, with the focus on the moderating role of mindfulness. Regarding the
main effect of the intensity of social media use
at work on burnout, evidence strongly suggests
that the higher intensity of social media use
leads to more emotional exhaustion, but not to
other aspects of burnout. Yet because emotional exhaustion was found as a factor that
affects depersonalization, which in turn results
in lack of personal accomplishment, it is an
issue that leads to the whole process of burnout
that employees experience. Thus, these results
provide support to previous literature regarding
the negative impacts of social media (Griffiths,
2013; Kuss and Griffiths, 2011; LaRose etal.,
2014). However, the analysis of the moderating
effect found interesting evidence that the role
of the intensity of social media use on burnout
is significantly contingent on the level of mindfulness that employees possessed. In particular,
the findings suggest that employees who have a
low level of mindfulness are those who suffer
from social media use at work; as the intensity
of social media use increases, they tend to
experience higher emotional exhaustion and
depersonalization. Interestingly, for those with
a high level of mindfulness, social media use at
work was found to be associated with lower
burnout. However, no difference was found for
lack of personal accomplishment. Overall,

Charoensukmongkol

Figure 2. Data plots between the intensity of social media use at work and three burnout aspects.

1975

1976
these findings are consistent with extant literature regarding the benefits of mindfulness,
especially the benefits related to emotional and
behavioral regulation (Feldman etal., 2007;
Hlsheger etal., 2013; Weinstein etal., 2009).
The findings from this research provide
extra contribution to research that focuses on
the role of social media use in the workplace.
Although previous studies found that using
social media during work could benefit employees (Charoensukmongkol, 2014a; Moqbel
etal., 2013), this study offers additional insight
that the outcomes can be contingent on the
characteristics of employees as well. Here,
mindfulness was found as the factor that leads
to the difference in outcomes that employees
received from using social media during work
hours. Thus, future research that aims to investigate the impact of social media at work should
consider some factors such as personalities and
work characteristics that might influence the
relationship between social media use and jobrelated outcomes.
Despite these findings, this research has
some limitations. First, the results are based on
cross-sectional data, thereby making causality
difficult to be implied. When using crosssectional data, reverse causality is a possible
issue that can bias the interpretation of the
results. For example, while the intensity of
social media use was proposed to cause burnout, we cannot completely rule out the possibility that employees who experience high burnout
are more likely to use social media as compared
with those who experienced low burnout.
Future research should address these limitations
by using longitudinal data collection. Second,
the samples selected for this study came from a
few companies in Bangkok area. Small sample
size limits the generalizability of the findings.
Thus, future research that collects data in a
larger scope is required. Third, the subjective
evaluation for the intensity of social media use
may not be an accurate measure of the actual
intensity of employees accessing social media
during work. Fourth, the data used in this
research do not capture the information about
how social media are used at work. It could be

Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)

possible that people who are low in mindfulness
used social media in a different way than those
who rank high in mindfulness. Future research
that targets on how social media are used at
work may provide more evidence to explain
why the outcomes between two groups differ.
This study offers some implications regarding social media use. Today, concern about the
negative impacts that might occur from social
media use has led many organizations to enact
a policy to prohibit social media access in the
workplace (Gaudin, 2009). Although evidence
has been found regarding the harmful effects
of social media, we have to understand that not
everyone will be affected the same. In fact, the
technology per se does not cause problems for
humans, but the way people utilize technology
is a factor that determines the benefit or harm
that they will get from using it. In the case of
social media, this technology is purposely
designed to bridge physical distance so that
people can easily connect with one another no
matter where they are (Kaplan and Haenlein,
2010). When using them appropriately within
a limit, they can benefit us significantly. But
unfortunately, many people allow social media
to have influence over their lives. They easily
get carried away by activities in social media,
and that can lead to negative outcomes. In particular, the difference in the consequences of
social media use on burnout between the group
with a high level of mindfulness and the group
with a low level of mindfulness suggests that
social media access in the workplace can provide benefits when employees are aware of
their social media use behavior but can cause
problems when employees are not aware of
their behavior when they access social media
during work. Therefore, mindfulness is an
important factor that can determine the outcomes that individuals obtain from social
media. When individuals are mindful of their
behaviors, they know what they are doing.
They are able to effectively regulate their
social media use behavior and not be subsumed by pleasant or unpleasant experiences
in social media that can eventually cause them
trouble.

Charoensukmongkol
In conclusion, the author argues that social
media are like a double-edged sword. Whether
we benefit or suffer from them depends on how
well we are aware of our actions when we use
them. Being mindful when using social media
is, therefore, crucial for individuals to fully reap
benefits that social media provide.
Acknowledgements
The author is very grateful to anonymous reviewers
for valuable comments and suggestions. All remaining errors and omissions are the authors responsibility. Also, the author would like to thank Miss
Kanokporn Sriwilai for assistance collecting the data
used in this study.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of
interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/
or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following
financial support for the research, authorship, and/or
publication of this article: This research received
financial support from the International College of
National Institute of Development Administration.

References
Andreassen CS, Torsheim T, Brunborg GS, etal.
(2012) Development of a Facebook addiction
scale. Psychological Reports 110: 501517.
Boles JS, Johnston MW and Hair JF (1997) Role stress,
work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion:
Inter-relationships and effects on some workrelated consequences. Journal of Personal Selling
and Sales Management 17: 1728.
Brown KW and Ryan RM (2003) The benefits of
being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology 84: 822848.
Charoensukmongkol P (2014a) Effects of support
and job demands on social media use and work
outcomes. Computers in Human Behavior 36:
340349.
Charoensukmongkol P (2014b) The contributions
of mindfulness meditation on burnout, coping strategy, and job satisfaction: Evidence
from Thailand. Journal of Management &
Organization 19: 544558.

1977
Demerouti E and Bakker AB (2011) The job
demands-resources model: Challenges for
future research. SA Journal of Industrial
Psychology 37: 19.
Efron B (1979) Bootstrap methods: Another look at
the jackknife. Annals of Statistics 7: 126.
Efron B, Rogosa D and Tibshirani R (2004) Resampling
methods of estimation. In: Smelser NJ and Baltes
PB (eds) International Encyclopedia of the Social
& Behavioral Sciences. New York: Elsevier, pp.
1321613220.
Ellison NB, Steinfield C and Lampe C (2007) The
benefits of Facebook friends: Social capital and college students use of online social
network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated
Communication 12: 11431168.
Feldman G, Hayes A, Kumar S, etal. (2007)
Mindfulness and emotion regulation: The development and initial validation of the Cognitive
and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised
(CAMS-R). Journal of Psychopathology and
Behavioral Assessment 29: 177190.
Fornell C and Larcker D (1981) Evaluating structural
equation models with unobservable variables
and measurement error. Journal of Marketing
Research 18: 3950.
Gangadharbatla H (2008) Collective self-esteem,
need to belong, and Internet self-efficacy as
predictors of the iGenerations attitudes toward
social networking sites. Journal of Interactive
Advertising 8: 515.
Gaudin S (2009) Study: 54% of companies ban
Facebook, Twitter at work. Computerworld.
Available at: http://www.computerworld.com/s/
article/9139020/Study_54_of_companies_ban_
Facebook_Twitter_at_work (accessed 8 July
2014).
Gosling SD, Augustine AA, Vazire S, etal. (2011)
Manifestations of personality in Online Social
Networks: Self-reported Facebook-related
behaviors and observable profile information. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social
Networking 14: 483488.
Griffiths MD (2013) Social networking addiction: Emerging themes and issues. Journal of
Addiction Research & Therapy 4: e118.
Hair JF, Black WC, Babin BJ, etal. (2009)
Multivariate Data Analysis. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Hakanen JJ and Schaufeli WB (2012) Do burnout and work engagement predict depressive
symptoms and life satisfaction? A three-wave

1978
seven-year prospective study. Journal of
Affective Disorders 141: 415424.
Hlsheger UR, Alberts HJEM, Feinholdt A, etal.
(2013) Benefits of mindfulness at work: The
role of mindfulness in emotion regulation,
emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction.
Journal of Applied Psychology 98: 310325.
Junco R (2012) Too much face and not enough
books: The relationship between multiple indices of Facebook use and academic performance.
Computers in Human Behavior 28: 187198.
Kalpidou M, Costin D and Morris J (2011) The
Relationship Between Facebook and the
well-being of undergraduate college students. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social
Networking 14: 183189.
Kammeyer-Mueller JD, Simon LS and Judge
TA (2016) A head start or a step behind?
Understanding how dispositional and motivational resources influence emotional exhaustion. Journal of Management 42(3): 561581.
Kaplan AM and Haenlein M (2010) Users of the
world, unite! The challenges and opportunities
of social media. Business Horizons 53: 5968.
Karasek R, Brisson C, Kawakami N, etal. (1998)
The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ): An
instrument for internationally comparative
assessments of psychosocial job characteristics.
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 3:
322355.
Kock N (2012) WarpPLS 3.0 User Manual. Laredo,
TX: ScriptWarp Systems.
Kock N and Lynn GS (2012) Lateral collinearity
and misleading results in variance-based SEM:
An illustration and recommendations. Journal
of the Association for Information Systems 13:
546580.
Kuss DJ and Griffiths MD (2011) Online social networking and addictionA review of the psychological literature. International Journal of
Environmental Research and Public Health 8:
35283552.
LaRose R, Connolly R, Lee H, etal. (2014)
Connection overload? A cross cultural study of
the consequences of social media connection.
Information Systems Management 31: 5973.
Leiter MP and Meechan KA (1986) Role structure
and burnout in the field of human services. The
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 22: 4752.
Leroy H, Anseel F, Dimitrova NG, etal. (2013)
Mindfulness, authentic functioning, and work

Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)

engagement: A growth modeling approach.
Journal of Vocational Behavior 82: 238247.
Leung M-Y, Chan YSI and Dongyu C (2011) Structural
linear relationships between job stress, burnout,
physiological stress, and performance of construction project managers. Engineering, Construction
and Architectural Management 18: 312328.
Little RJA and Rubin DB (1987) Statistical Analysis
with Missing Data. New York: John Wiley.
Maslach C (1982) Burnout: The Cost of Caring.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Maslach C (1993) Burnout: A multidimensional
perspective. In: Schaufeli WB, Maslach C
and Marek T (eds) Professional Burnout:
Recent Developments in Theory and Research.
Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, pp. 1932.
Maslach C and Jackson SE (1981) The Maslach
Burnout Inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting
Psychologists Press.
Maslach C, Schaufeli WB and Leiter MP (2011)
Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology 52:
397422.
Moqbel M, Nevo S and Kock N (2013) Organizational
members use of social networking sites and job
performance: An exploratory study. Information
Technology & People 26: 240264.
Nabi RL, Prestin A and So J (2013) Facebook
friends with (health) benefits? Exploring
social network site use and perceptions of
social. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social
Networking 16: 721727.
Orr ES, Sisic M, Ross C, etal. (2009) The influence
of shyness on the use of Facebook in an undergraduate sample. CyberPsychology & Behavior
12: 337340.
Petter S, Straub D and Rai A (2007) Specifying
formative constructs in information systems
research. MIS Quarterly 31: 623656.
Podsakoff PM, Mackenzie SB, Lee JY, etal. (2003)
Common method biases in behavior research:
A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied
Psychology 88: 879903.
Reb J, Narayanan J and Ho ZW (2015) Mindfulness
at work: Antecedents and consequences of
employee awareness and absent-mindedness.
Mindfulness 6(1): 111122.
Ren H, Bolino MC, Shaffer MA, etal. (2013) The influence of job demands and resources on repatriate
career satisfaction: A relative deprivation perspective. Journal of World Business 48: 149159.

Charoensukmongkol
Schouten AP, Valkenburg PM and Peter J (2007)
Precursors and underlying processes of adolescents online self-disclosure: Developing and
testing an Internet-attribute-perception model.
Media Psychology 10: 292315.
Schmer M and Buchwald P (2012) Social support
and coping within Facebook: Using online
social networks in times of stress. In: Moore
KA, Kaniasty K and Buchwald P (eds) Stress,
Childhood and Coping. Berlin: Legos Verlag
Berlin GmbH, pp. 107-118.
Sheldon P (2008) The relationship between
unwillingness-to-communicate and students
Facebook use. Journal of Media Psychology:
Theories, Methods, and Applications 20:
6775.
Shih S-P, Jiang JJ, Klein G, etal. (2013) Job burnout
of the information technology worker: Work
exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal

1979
accomplishment. Information & Management
50: 582589.
Shonin E, Gordon WV and Griffiths MD (2014)
Mindfulness as a treatment for behavioural
addiction. Journal of Addiction Research &
Therapy 5: e122.
Valkenburg PM, Peter J and Schouten AP (2006)
Friend networking sites and their relationship to
adolescents well-being and social self-esteem.
CyberPsychology & Behavior 9: 584590.
Weinstein N, Brown KW and Ryan RM (2009) A
multi-method examination of the effects of
mindfulness on stress attribution, coping, and
emotional well-being. Journal of Research in
Personality 43: 374385.
Yom Y-H (2013) Analysis of burnout and job satisfaction among nurses based on the job demandresource model. Journal of Korean Academy of
Nursing 43: 114122.

1980

Appendix 1
Measurement items
Social media use intensity during work
At work, my social networking sites
account(s) is (are) a part of my everyday
activity.
At work, I am proud to tell people Im on
social networking sites.
At work, social networking sites have
become part of my daily routine.
At work, I feel out of touch when I
havent logged onto social networking
sites for a while.
At work, I feel I am part of the social networking sites community.
At work, I would be sorry if social networking sites shut down (Ellison etal.,
2007).
Mindfulness
I could be experiencing some emotion
and not be conscious of it until sometime
later.
I break or spill things because of carelessness, not paying attention, or thinking of something else.
I find it difficult to stay focused on
whats happening in the present.
I tend to walk quickly to get where Im
going without paying attention to what I
experience along the way.
I tend not to notice feelings of physical
tension or discomfort until they really
grab my attention.
I forget a persons name almost as soon
as Ive been told it for the first time.
It seems I am running on automatic,
without much awareness of what Im
doing.
I rush through activities without being
really attentive to them.
I get so focused on the goal I want to
achieve that I lose touch with what Im
doing right now to get there.
I do jobs or tasks automatically, without
being aware of what Im doing.

Journal of Health Psychology 21(9)

I find myself listening to someone with
one ear, doing something else at the same
time.
I drive places on automatic pilot and
then wonder why I went there.
I find myself preoccupied with the future
or the past.
I find myself doing things without paying attention.
I snack without being aware that Im eating (Gangadharbatla, 2008).
Emotional exhaustion
I feel emotionally drained from my
work.
I feel used up at the end of the workday.
I feel tired when I get up in the morning
and have to face another day on the job.
Working all day is really a strain for me.
I feel burned out from my work (Maslach
and Jackson, 1981).
Depersonalization
I can effectively solve the problems that
arise in my work.
I feel I am making an effective contribution to what my organization does.
In my opinion, I am good at my job.
I feel exhilarated when I accomplish
something at work.
I have accomplished many worthwhile
things in my current job.
At my work, I feel confident that I am
effective at getting things done (Maslach
and Jackson, 1981).
Lack of personal accomplishment
I have become less interested in my work
since I started my current job.
I have become less enthusiastic about my
work.
I just want to do my job and not be
bothered.
I have become more cynical about
whether my work contributes anything.
I doubt the significance of my work
(Maslach and Jackson, 1981).