Difficult as it may be, asking people to stop using social media for just one week can lead to significant improvements in their well-being, depression and anxiety, say new study authors. news/techlife/” class=”PfUsGslq” title=”Why you should take a week-long social media break” alt=”Why you should take a week-long social media break” Why you should take a week-long social media break />
For the study, researchers randomly assigned 154 people aged 18 to 72 who used social media daily to either a group where they were asked to stop using all social media for one week or a control group. where they could continue flipping pages as usual. Baseline measures of anxiety, depression, and well-being were obtained at baseline.
After one week, participants who were asked to take a week-long break experienced significant improvement in well-being, depression, and anxiety compared to those who continued to use social media.
"If you spend several hours a week scrolling through social media and feel that it negatively affects you, it may be worth reducing your use of them and see if it helps,” said Bath Department of Health lead researcher Dr Jeff Lambert.