Researchers at the University of the Bath
Avoiding social media for just one week can lead to significant improvements in improving mental wellbeing and decreasing depression and anxiety, according to new study. Researchers at the University of Bath studies the effects of a week - long social media break on adults aged from 18 to 72 who used social media every day into either an intervention group - whether they were asked to stop using all social media for one week.
Participants asked to take one week break reported using social media for an average of 21 minutes compared to an average of seven hours for those in the control group. Screen usage stats were provided to check that individuals had adhered to the break.
Dr Jeff Lambert, lead researchers of Bath's Department for Health, said - "Scrolling social media is so ubiquitous that many of us do it almost without thinking from the moment we wake up to when we close our eyes at night."
"We know that social media usage is huge and that there is increasing concerns about its mental health effects, so with this study, we wanted to see whether simply asking people to take a week's break could yield mental health benefits.
"Many of our participants reported positive effects from being off social media with improved mood and less anxiety overall. This suggests that even just a small break can have an impact. 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", Lambert said.
"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", He added.
As a potential recommendation to help people manage their mental health, this could free up to 9 hours of the week which could otherwise have been spent scrolling Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
Over the past 15 years, social media has completely changed how we communicate. Social media platforms have exponentially across the world - with the number of adults using social media increased from 45% in 2011 to 71% in 2021 in just the UK alone.
Main features and characteristics of depression can include feeling 'low' and losing pleasure, whereas anxiety is characterized by excessive and out of control worry.
The researchers stated that wellbeing referred to an Individual's level of positive affect, life satisfaction and sense of purpose. According to the Mind, one in six of us experience a common mental health problem like anxiety and depression in any given week - a lot of which, can be put down to excessive social media use and reliance.
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