Dialing down the use of social media for a week reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression and insomnia in young adults, revealed a study published on Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open.
According to The New York Times, researchers followed 295 volunteers, ages 18 to 24, who opted to take a break from social media.
Before and after, the participants answered surveys measuring depression, anxiety, insomnia, loneliness and a number of problematic social media behaviors.
Overall, they reported positive changes: On average, symptoms of anxiety dropped by 16.1 percent; depression by 24.8%; and insomnia by 14.5%.
The improvement was most pronounced in subjects with more severe depression. At the same time, there was no change in reported loneliness — perhaps, the authors wrote, because the platforms play a constructive social role.
Dr. John Torous, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a co-author of the study, said reducing social media “certainly would not be your first-line or your only form of care,” but the study showed it could be useful as an adjunct treatment.
“If you’re struggling with a mental health condition, and you have treatment already,” he said, “it’s likely worth experimenting to see whether reducing social media helps you feel better.”
The mental health benefit seemed to come from avoiding problematic social media behaviors, like addictive use and negative social comparison, rather than a change in overall screen time, the authors said.
The findings land in the midst of an intense academic debate over whether excessive screen time causes mental health problems.
At the same time, many specialists have urged caution about concluding that screen time is a central factor in declining mental health, saying that studies have yielded mixed results and that what seems to matter is what young people do online, not how much time they spend there.
Several psychologists said the new study was of limited value because its design allowed for bias.
Dr. Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and the author of “10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World,” said the study helped discount the longstanding argument that people experiencing mental health struggles simply use social media more.
She noted, however, that more research was necessary to shed light on whether the effects were long-lasting. “The key would be to see how long people can keep up light use of social media,” she said. “If they slide back into old habits, the detox won’t have long-lasting effects,” she said.
