One-Week Social Media Reduction Improves Mental Well-Being in Young Adults, finds study
A study in young adults has found that reducing social media use for just one week was associated with improvements in depression, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms. The findings suggest that even a short-term reduction in social media exposure may benefit mental health. However, it remains unclear how long these benefits persist and how they relate to changes in behavior, highlighting the need for larger and more diverse studies to confirm the long-term effects. The study was published in JAMA Network Open by Elombe C. and colleagues.
Subjects for the experiment consisted of young adults aged from 18 to 24, having access to smartphones and sufficient proficiency in English. Participants were tracked during the period from March 2024 to March 2025. The protocol involved the initial mandatory 2-week baseline phase with passive measurements of social media usage, using major sites like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X. After this phase, participants were allowed to choose to undergo 1-week structured social media detox program.
The primary clinical outcomes measured were depression based on Patient Health Questionnaire-9, anxiety according to Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, and insomnia according to Insomnia Severity Index. Besides, researchers studied loneliness scales and processed behavioral changes within individuals related to physical activity, communication, and transient psychological state measured by smartphone surveys.
Key findings:
- Out of 417 enrolled participants, 373 participants (mean [SD] age, 21.0 [1.9] years) completed the baseline assessment, with 295 of them (79.1%) accepting the detox intervention that led to 16.1% decrease in anxiety according to the findings (−1.9 change, Cohen d, −0.44; 95% CI, −0.56 to −0.32), 24.8% decrease in depression (−2.0 change, Cohen d, −0.37; 95% CI, −0.49 to −0.32) and 14.5% decrease in insomnia (−2.1 change, Cohen d, −0.44; 95% CI, −0.56 to −0.32).
- Nevertheless, there was no significant effect of the detox on loneliness (Cohen d, −0.40; 95% CI, −0.17 to 0.06).
- Some small rises were noted for time spent at home (β, 42.8; 95% CI, 24.3 to 61.2 minutes) and time spent on screen (β, 15.4; 95% CI, 4.9 to 25.9 seconds), but a lot of variability between individuals was noted. No other changes in behavioral parameters were observed after conducting the detox.
To conclude, in this sample group of young people, limiting social media for a duration of 1 week led to decreased symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia; but the sustainability of these effects and correlation with behaviors need further investigation especially in a variety of groups. This tracking data from real life provides an invaluable scientific basis for behavioral medicine, showing that short-term changes in lifestyle can effectively disrupt psychological symptoms cycles.
Reference:
Calvert E, Cipriani M, Dwyer B, et al. Social Media Detox and Youth Mental Health. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(11):e2545245. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.45245
