Tracking connections, not content: How working memory shapes content and social learning in online networks

How do individuals navigate and prioritize social information in online networks? While social networks provide continuous streams of content, they also constitute complex webs of social connections. Across five studies, we show that individuals with higher working memory capacity do not necessarily learn more from the content itself. Instead, they strategically allocate attention toward mapping social relationships, such as tracking who is connected to whom, effectively treating the network as an external social memory system. This attentional reallocation leads to reduced engagement with content but enhanced encoding of relational structures. These findings highlight a counterintuitive role of working memory in digital social cognition: cognitive resources are deployed to optimize learning about social connections rather than content, reflecting adaptive strategies for managing relational information. Theoretically, this work advances understanding of how attention and memory support social learning in digital environments.