Just a week without social media leads to significant improvements in well-being, depression and anxiety disorders. This is the conclusion of a study by the University of Bath. According to research leader Jeff Lambert's team, this approach could be recommended as a way to manage mental health. For some study participants, the break from social media meant they had around nine hours of their week back that they would otherwise have spent on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
Experiments with 154 people
Researchers assigned 154 people between the ages of 18 and 72 who used social media every day to either an intervention group in which they were asked to abstain from all social media for a week or a control group that was allowed to continue as before. At the start of the study, baseline levels of anxiety, depression and well-being were established.
At the start of the study, the study participants said they spent around eight hours per week on social media. A week later, those who took a break saw significant improvements in all three areas. This actually seems to have a short-term benefit. The people who were asked to take a break from social media said they had used it for an average of 21 minutes. In the control group this value was seven hours.
Changed lifestyle
Screen usage statistics were provided to check whether participants adhered to the agreed break. The researchers now want to build on this study to find out whether taking a short break can help different populations, such as younger people or those with physical or mental illnesses. The team also plans to follow people for longer than just a week to see if these benefits are lasting.
Over the past 15 years, social media has revolutionized the way we communicate. In the UK, the number of adults using social media increased from 45 percent in 2011 to 71 percent in 2021. Among people aged 16 to 44, 97 percent use social media. Scrolling is considered the most common activity online today. Details were published in “Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking.”
In line with this topic:
Social media makes adults depressed.
Is social media harmful to our psyche?
Source: pte
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