Reducing social media use for just a week can improve mental health - Psychology & Psychiatry

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In a new study, published in JAMA Network Open, 295 participants report promising mental health benefits after reducing their social media usage for a week. The cohort consisted of young adults from the ages of 18 to 24—the age group commonly associated with the highest social media usage, as well as a heightened risk of mental health issues.

Although many self-reports have surfaced online indicating that reducing social media use has been beneficial in various ways, the scientific link between social media use and youth mental health is still debated, with past studies showing mixed results.

Measuring social media usage

Prior research on social media usage often relied on self-reported estimates of measures like screen time, communication habits, sleep patterns, and physical activity, but these kinds of self reports can be biased, leading to unreliable results. Objective, real-time data on social media use can provide a far more realistic picture of the impact of social media on mental health.

So, to reduce bias introduced by self-reported usage, the study team used a method referred to as "digital phenotyping"—where participants passively tracked their app usage, GPS, accelerometer, and screenstate with their smartphones and reported these to the team.

A baseline assessment consisted of a two-week data collection period before reducing social media. Then participants collected and reported their data during a one-week period in which they attempted their "social media detox," where they were advised to limit activity on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter). Throughout the three-week period, all participants took daily in-the-moment self-reports of mental health with ecological momentary assessments (EMA).

Improvements—especially for problematic social media use

On average, the week-long social media detox led to a 16.1% reduction in anxiety, 24.8% reduction in depression, and a 14.5% reduction in insomnia symptoms among the cohort, according to their self-reported measures of mental health. While 6.2% of participants did not use social media at all during the detox period, the average usage went from 1.9 hours per day to 0.5 hours during the social media detox period.

However, there was a lot of variation in improvement. The study authors note that problematic use of social
media, like addictive use and negative social comparison, was found to be significantly associated with worse mental health outcomes. Those with problematic use to begin with experienced overall greater improvements with limited use.

The team writes, "We speculate that the improvements observed during detox were associated more with a reduction in opportunities for problematic engagement, such as negative social comparison and addictive use, rather than by reductions in overall screen time, consistent with our findings showing lesser associations between objective screen time and mental health outcomes."

Notably, the study found no significant change in reported loneliness during the detox period. The study authors attribute this to the fact that social media often plays a role in social connection and community.

Biased results?

Although bias was limited in app usage reporting, the study was not immune to other forms of bias. The major one being self-selection into the detox group. Participants volunteered for the study and were likely aware of the expected outcome beforehand. This may lead to biased results. In addition, the study did not include a long-term follow-up or randomized control group.

The study authors are well aware of the limitations of the study, but they say the results are still useful and indicate that social media reduction could be a beneficial part of mental health therapy.

The study authors write, "These findings suggest that reducing social media use for 1 week may improve mental health outcomes in young adults; however, the durability of these therapeutic outcomes and their associations with behavior require further investigation." 

by Krystal Kasal, Medical Xpress

edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Robert Egan 

Source: Reducing social media use for just a week can improve mental health