The use of Instagram is becoming increasingly popular among students. Excessive Instagram use (EIU) has become a growing problem that can impact students' lives psychosocially. This study applied uses and gratifications theory (UGT) to explore the impact of social gratification, content gratification, and entertainment along with social presence, and escapism in relation to EIU. Data were collected from 285 university students and analyzed in two steps. In the first step, structural equation modeling was employed to identify the important variables that impact excessive Instagram use. In the second step, an artificial neural network (ANN) technique was used for validating the findings in Step 1 and determined the relative importance of each variable in relation to excessive Instagram use. The results showed that social gratification, entertainment, escapism, and social presence were positively related to EIU. ANN analysis showed that escapism was the most important construct in predicting excessive Instagram use followed by entertainment, social presence, and social gratification. Furthermore, EIU was related to academic impairment. The findings of the study contribute to the domain of the dark side of online activities by theoretically investigating the effect of EIU on students' academic study.