from the put-down-the-phone-and-back-away dept.
Asking people to stop using social media for just one week could lead to significant improvements in their wellbeing, depression and anxiety and could, in the future, be recommended as a way to help people manage their mental health say the authors of a new study.
The study, carried out by a team of researchers at the University of Bath (UK), studied the mental health effects of a week-long social media break. For some participants in the study, this meant freeing-up around nine hours of their week which would otherwise have been spent scrolling Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
[...] Participants reported spending an average of 8 hours per week on social media at the start of the study. One week later, the participants who were asked to take the one-week break had significant improvements in wellbeing, depression, and anxiety than those who continued to use social media, suggesting a short-term benefit.
[...] "Of course, social media is a part of life and for many people, it's an indispensable part of who they are and how they interact with others. But if you are spending hours each week scrolling and you feel it is negatively impacting you, it could be worth cutting down on your usage to see if it helps."
[...] Over the past 15 years, social media has revolutionised how we communicate, underscored by the huge growth the main platforms have observed. In the UK the number of adults using social media increased from 45% in 2011 to 71% in 2021. Among 16 to 44-year-olds, as many as 97% of us use social media and scrolling is the most frequent online activity we perform.
Journal Reference:
Jeffrey Lambert et al. Taking a One-Week Break from Social Media Improves Well-Being, Depression, and Anxiety: A Randomized Controlled Trial [open] Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 2022
DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2021.0324
Related Stories
The US Surgeon General has published his 2023 advisory on social control media and youth mental health [warning for PDF]. The report's scope is only on the health and mental health effects, not the weaponized nature of the phenomenon. The body of the report is 17 pages long and includes a call to action.
Extreme, inappropriate, and harmful content continues to be easily and widely accessible by children and adolescents. This can be spread through direct pushes, unwanted content exchanges, and algorithmic designs. In certain tragic cases, childhood deaths have been linked to suicide- and self-harm-related content and risk-taking challenges on social media platforms. This content may be especially risky for children and adolescents who are already experiencing mental health difficulties. Despite social media providing a sense of community for some, a systematic review of more than two dozen studies found that some social media platforms show live depictions of self-harm acts like partial asphyxiation, leading to seizures, and cutting, leading to significant bleeding. Further, these studies found that discussing or showing this content can normalize such behaviors, including through the formation of suicide pacts and posting of self-harm models for others to follow.
Social media may also perpetuate body dissatisfaction, disordered eating behaviors, social comparison, and low self-esteem, especially among adolescent girls. A synthesis of 20 studies demonstrated a significant relationship between social media use and body image concerns and eating disorders, with social comparison as a potential contributing factor. Social comparison driven by social media is associated with body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and depressive symptoms. When asked about the impact of social media on their body image, nearly half (46%) of adolescents aged 13–17 said social media makes them feel worse, 40% said it makes them feel neither better nor worse, and only 14% said it makes them feel better.
Previously:
(2023) Seattle's Schools are Suing Tech Giants for Harming Young People's Mental Health
(2022) Leaked Documents Reveal Instagram Was Pushing Girls Towards Content That Harmed Mental Health
(2022) Social Media Break Improves Mental Health
(2021) Facebook Documents Show How Toxic Instagram is for Teens, Wall Street Journal Reports
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @09:43AM (4 children)
I'm so much more productive since I left S/N, I now have enough time to dedicate to good old plain masturbation instead of the intellectual kind.
Come on, give it a try, feel it for yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @10:01AM (3 children)
"Feel it for yourself"
I see what you did there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @02:41PM (2 children)
I doubt it, as I don't masturbate in public.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @07:15PM (1 child)
If only rubbing my belly solved hunger! You fools need to learn how to multi-task. I post all of my comments from the market.
posted one-handed from my iPhone
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @07:27PM
I'm not saying all iPhone users are wankers.
(Score: 2, Redundant) by Opportunist on Saturday May 14 2022, @10:58AM (3 children)
Not reading constantly from your filter bubble that the sky is falling may alleviate anxiety and depression? Seriously?
Who the hell gets money for studies like this?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Saturday May 14 2022, @12:46PM (2 children)
It's important to have clinical trials like this to point to when pointing out that social media is toxic. With this, it's "clinical trials demonstrate the toxic effects of social media". Without it, it's "people wanking around with their opinions claim social media is toxic".
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday May 14 2022, @10:11PM (1 child)
I'd like to know if this was posted on any social media venues.
Kind of doubting it, but i have no idea: can't see social media shooting itself.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday May 15 2022, @08:14AM
Not necessarily, cigarette packets have had "these things will kill you" on them for decades without having much effect (what worked was laws restricting smoking more and more combined with the message that it was socially unacceptable, not smokers being told it was bad).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @11:05AM (4 children)
I guess I'm the 3% that doesn't use the stuff...
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @12:24PM (1 child)
Just to be clear, even though you do not use social media...it uses you.
Ghost profiles are being created on EVERYONE that does not have an account.
That means if you happen to be in a photo shoot indirectly, your face will be added to the collective and all associated data about your surf habits..
Great job on not using social media, however, it will continue to use you.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Opportunist on Saturday May 14 2022, @12:35PM
So ... me searching for condoms and doggy bisquits gets me suggestions for really, really weird porn pages?
(Score: 2) by driverless on Saturday May 14 2022, @12:43PM
So you're safe. You need to look at it the other way round, what it's saying is that social media is a toxin and that a trial removal of that toxin has positive effects for your mental health. It has a net negative effect on your mental health when you're exposed to it.
(Score: 2) by bmimatt on Saturday May 14 2022, @11:44PM
There are dozens of us! DOZENS!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14 2022, @05:15PM
here they print all manner of nasty pictures on the cigarette boxes ... maybe they can mandate ugly and scare icons for social media apps? or force to watch some 10 sec AD about the toxic dangers when opening the app? \
surgeon generals warning: social media apps can cause depression, anxiety and a general lousy feeling.