Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of social media use among students, and the way in which it affects their performance and attitude when used in the classroom in Saudi Arabia. The study explores students' attitudes to using social media to perform activities in the classroom and in their future careers. Design/methodology/approach: A convergent mixed methods design was adopted, administering an online survey to a sample of 622 university students and conducting interviews with 20 students. Findings: The results revealed that the relationship between the level of a student's social media usage and GPA (Grade Point Average) was negatively correlated. Moreover, the students with a high level of social media usage generally reported a highly positive attitude towards using social media in classroom activities. Finally, the students' level of social media usage was found to predict their attitude towards performing classroom activities using social media. Research limitations/implications: This study has implications for both theory and practice. For example, the findings confirm the ways in which social media are deployed, according to uses and gratification theory. In particular, social media are used by Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University students for escapism, social integration and interaction, establishing personal identity, and meeting affective and cognitive needs. Meanwhile, the theoretical implications of this study are that new dimensions and social media terms can be added to the assumptions of uses and gratification theory. For example, virtual tolerance corresponds to escapism, virtual communication corresponds to integration and social interaction, virtual problems can be matched with personal identity and affective needs, and virtual information corresponds to cognitive needs. Practical implications: On a practical level, the results could be useful for students, teachers, educational policymakers and society. The results would show students how high social media usage could have a negative impact on their performance. Therefore, they should control their usage by managing their time, for example, via time management apps, if necessary. In particular, students could use social media in their learning and to develop their skills. A positive attitude among students, with regard to using social media in classroom activities, should correspondingly increase teachers' use of social media in the teaching process. This implies the expected benefits for teachers of using social media to teach and communicate with students. In addition, policymakers need to use social media as a means of reaching those population segments who display high social media usage, and who are unlikely to use traditional media to connect with those who formulate policy. Social implications: It is important to consider that high levels of social media use have a tendency to affect users' health, causing neck and back pain and psychological issues, for example, stress and depression. This points to a pressing need for society's institutions to raise public awareness of the disadvantages of high social media usage. Originality/value: This study could serve as a useful source of information for faculty members seeking to integrate social media into their curricula. It could also encourage students to activate social media in their learning and communication with teachers and peers, while at the same time reducing their non-academic social media usage. This study provides a scale for measuring students' social media usage and attitudes to undertaking classroom activities via social media in the Saudi context. The scale is validated through adaptation of the scales developed by Sahin (2018) and Kitchakarn (2016).