https://www.calnewport.com/blog/2022/05/16/taking-a-break-from-social-media-makes-you-happier-and-less-anxious/ Cal Newport Cal Newport Website Navigation * Home * About * Books * Media * Podcast * Blog * Contact Study Hacks Blog Taking a Break from Social Media Makes you Happier and Less Anxious May 16th, 2022 * 11 comments [study-640px] In my writing on technology and culture I try to be judicious about citing scientific studies. The issues involved in our ongoing wrangling with digital innovations are subtle and often deeply human. Attempts to exactly quantify what we're gaining and losing through our screens can at times feel disconcertedly sterile. All that being said, however, when I come across a particularly well-executed study that presents clear and convincing results, I do like to pass it along, as every extra substantial girder helps in our current scramble to build a structure of understanding. Which brings me to a smart new paper, written by a team of researchers from the University of Bath, and published last week in the journal of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. It's titled "Taking a One-Week Break from Social Media Improves Well-Being, Depression, and Anxiety," and it caught my attention, in part, because of its parsimonious design. As I reported last fall in The New Yorker, a problem with existing research on social media and mental health is that it often depends on analyzing large existing data sets. Finding strong social psychological signals in these vast collections of measurements is tricky, as outcomes can be quite sensitive to exactly what questions are asked. This new paper avoids these issues by deploying a gold-standard for studying human impacts: the randomized control trial. The researchers gathered 154 volunteers with a mean age of 29.6 years old. They randomly divided them into an intervention group, which was asked to stop using social media for one week (with a focus, in particular, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok), and a control group which was given no instructions. At the end of this week, the researchers found "significant between-group differences" in well-being, depression, and anxiety, with the intervention group faring much better on all three metrics. These results held even after control for baseline scores, as well as age and gender. The researchers further found that they could obtain smaller, but still significant improvements in depression and anxiety by having users simply reduce the time they spend on Twitter and TikTok. The biggest effects, however, came from full abstention. Caveat emptor, I don't know these researchers, nor have I run this work by the experts I trust in the field, so I can't vouch without equivocation for the strength of its findings. But given the simple study design and the clear effects it revealed, the message here seems to be clear: social media hurts mental health. Which motivates an obvious follow-up question: Why do we insist on still shrugging our shoulders and continuing to treat the use of these tools like some sort of unavoidable civic and professional necessity? 11 thoughts on "Taking a Break from Social Media Makes you Happier and Less Anxious" 1. [b54b7d36d] Shreya says: May 16, 2022 at 11:24 pm This does not surprise me at all. I cut out all social media from my life after I read Deep Work in 2016, and saved myself a truckload of anxiety in the intervening years. My friends occasionally forward twitter threads to me, and I'm struck by how intense and opinionated the most popular ones seem to be. It's as though they are designed to get a rise out of you and are largely devoid of nuance. On an unrelated note, are there any managers here from the tech / finance industry who follow Cal's deep work philosophy? I'd love to trade notes on how you apply his principles to people management. If you're interested in chatting about it, then please email me at shreya.vora10@gmail.com! Reply 2. [19d08f698] Jr says: May 17, 2022 at 12:45 am Confirms the results of Amy Cuddys research discussed in her book Presence. Reply 1. [61a7a2b90] Nathan says: May 17, 2022 at 1:40 pm How so? Reply 3. [15064783d] Anne says: May 17, 2022 at 1:21 am Because it's a culturally accepted activity that doesn't make you fat, drunk, or stoned. But mostly because of FOMO. Reply 4. [dc5f0acf0] Jason McFadden says: May 17, 2022 at 3:30 am Evidence that people are better off without social media, or at least they're happier. So is it worth trading mental health for the few benefits of social media, especially when it's easy to point out that "connecting" and "communicating" digitally can and does still occur outside social media: email, texting phone numbers, blogging, newsletters, stand-alone messaging/group services (maybe Discord for example, though its very name implies a negative towards mental health, maybe Zoom?). And then there's non-digital means for these too. Social Media may be the norm, but it's not necessary. When trying to show there are digital alternatives or equivalents to social media, even if examples are scarce or weak, rather than resign to using social media, it should be noted that if social media vanished today, both existing and new tools (hopefully not algorithm-based ones) to replace it would quickly arise. Also, anecdotal evidence: I created my Twitter account in 2012...and after ten years, I deleted it this April. (I also logged off Facebook and turned off most notifications for everything.) In the 3+ weeks since, I definitely feel better, calmer in mind. I've been more present for my family, and I've been able to have more clarity and focus on other pursuits. My brain feels less...frazzled. I plan to keep at it. Reply 5. Pingback: Taking a Break from Social Media Makes You Happier and Less Anxious - SLRED - All The Latest News, Tips and Job Post! 6. [519d4026e] Geoff says: May 17, 2022 at 10:13 am Very interesting study. I like that the researches noted, the next logical step is to examine these effects longitudinally. It would be very interesting to see if there some sort of a 'novelty' effect. The challenge of a study of this nature is that the cannot be blinded, in principle, becuase the participants know whether they're giving up social media, or not. So it's impossible to rule out the effect this has, which is particularly challenging when it comes to psychological traits such as well-being and mood. It's not a bad sample size, but ideally it would be good to test these results on a much larger sample too. Reply 7. [c3f341d6e] Thomas Turner says: May 17, 2022 at 12:52 pm Interesting stuff! One question that pops into my head though: have the researchers thought about and attempted to control for or mitigate the placebo effect? In medical RCT's the control group would typically be given a sugar pill or some other fake intervention. I can imagine that being _told_ to stop using social media might lead to expectations of a change in wellbeing that might come through in self-reported mental health surveys. Reply 8. Pingback: New best story on Hacker News: Taking a Break from Social Media Makes You Happier and Less Anxious - Discovery Mosti 9. Pingback: Taking a Break from Social Media Makes You Happier and Less Anxious - Latest-News-Events 10. [cdb74a6f0] Rambhakta says: May 17, 2022 at 4:29 pm Most tech tools can be used expansively or contractively - meaning, they can expand awareness by the changes the individual style of use fosters in body, heart, will, mind, and soul. This is the measuring stick of Eastern teachings - which aren't "philosophy," the study of wisdom, but rather research into "what works." What actions produce happiness and decrease suffering. Turns out to be a very long yardstick indeed. I can use my time at the computer to watch a YT video on setting up my new Canon to take pictures that will inspire, amuse, and uplift. Or I can use it to harass someone on FB and TWIT. What counts is the effect on the individual - me. Tech and media become harmful when they contract my awareness - when they put my awareness to sleep somewhere in the back-brain rather than engaging me in creative, productive, expansive ways. But then, the tech isn't the decider; I am. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Comment * [ ] Name * [ ] Email * [ ] Website [ ] [Post Comment] you MUST enable javascript to be able to comment [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] D[ ] About Cal Newport I'm a computer science professor who writes about the intersection of digital technology and culture. I'm particularly interested in our struggles to deploy these tools in ways that support instead of subvert the things we care about. If you're new to my writing, a good place to start is with my latest book, A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload, or my about page. You can also access over a decade's worth of posts in the blog archive. My Web Host [A2-125x125] My podcast [sidebar_po] MY TOP-RATED PODCAST WHERE I ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM MY READERS ABOUT WORK, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE DEEP LIFE. [sidebar_po] My Latest A World Without Email timeblockplanner My Other Books digital minimalism Deep Work So Good They Can't Ignore You How to Be a High School SuperstarHow to Become a Straight-A Student How to Win at College Get the Latest from the Study Hacks Blog in your inbox: You'll receive the blog posts via email. Your email address is never sold or shared. My Online Courses [LOF_logo_c] A course by Cal Newport and Scott Young LEARN MORE [TP_logo_ca] A course by Cal Newport and Scott Young LEARN MORE Note: This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. 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