THE ROLE OF EXCESSIVE SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN PREDICTING SPIRITUAL COGNITIVE DECLINE AMONG MUSLIM ADOLESCENTS IN INDONESIA

Abstract

Social media has become an integral part of daily life for Muslim adolescents globally, raising concerns about “brain rot”, caused by excessive exposure to low-quality digital content. While many studies have linked excessive social media use (ESMU) to declines in general cognitive functions, its effect on spiritual cognition remains underexplored. From the perspective of Islamic psychology, overstimulation may weaken essential aspects of spiritual cognition—such as worship focus (khusyūʿ), Qur’anic memorization, moral regulation, empathy, and ghowzul fikr—collectively framed in this study as Spiritual Brain Rot (SBR). This study aims to analyze the role of ESMU in predicting SBR among Muslim adolescents in Indonesia. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 171 participants aged 11–19 using two validated instruments: the Excessive Social Media Use Scale (ESMUS) and the Spiritual Cognitive Function Scale (SCFS). Linear regression analysis revealed a significant and moderately strong relationship between ESMU and SBR (R² = 0.358, β = 0.490, 95% CI [0.38, 0.63], p < 0.001), indicating that ESMU accounts for 35.8% of the variance in SBR.  In conclusion, the findings support the study’s hypothesis that higher levels of ESMU are associated with a decline in spiritual cognitive functioning, highlighting a potential disruption to adolescents’ spiritual well-being in the digital age.