In an article published last month in the Journal of Interactive Advertising (email me if you want a free copy), a colleague and I demonstrated that using social media induces a measurable degree of cognitive load, because the variety of networking and media components requires users to hold multiple evaluation schemas (or rules) in working memory. We also show that while under cognitive load, consumers are more influenced by cues (e.g., number of likes and comments). However, product involvement was found to serve as a boundary condition—if you actually care about the product, brand, or cause, you are motivated to expend the mental energy to think about it. I go i

I explain it a bit more in this little TikTok video: