Guarding serenity in the digital age: mindfulness as a buffer against social media-induced psychological discomfort in older tourists.

INTRODUCTION: While social media enriches senior tourists' travel experiences, its psychological adverse impacts remain understudied. Existing literature mainly focuses on youth social media fatigue or older adults' physical digital divide. Rooted in Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study fills the research gap by exploring the internal psychological mechanisms of Social Media-Induced Travel Anxiety (SMITA), its linkage with resource loss and seniors' serenity, and the moderating effect of mindfulness.

METHODS: A quantitative cross-sectional design was adopted. Survey data were collected from 560 Chinese senior tourists and analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Bootstrap resampling.

RESULTS: SMITA impairs serenity via two parallel serial mediation paths of resource loss: the cognitive-emotional path (SMITA → Cognitive Fatigue → Emotional Exhaustion) and the anxiety-willpower path (SMITA → Generalized Anxiety → Self-Depletion). SMITA strongly predicts generalized anxiety (β = 0.584, p < 0.001) and cognitive fatigue (β = 0.551, p < 0.001); both factors increase psychological discomfort, which further reduces serenity (β = -0.507, p < 0.001). Mindfulness significantly mitigates the negative correlation between psychological discomfort and serenity (interaction β = -0.268, p < 0.001).

DISCUSSION: Theoretically, this research expands COR theory by revealing dual resource-loss mechanisms in the digital aging context. Practically, it offers actionable strategies for the tourism industry to design low-cognitive-load digital services and deploy mindfulness interventions to maintain the inner peace of older adults tourists.