Cutting back social media use to just 30 minutes a day for one week may help ease mental health symptoms in young adults.
Researchers tracked 295 people between the ages of 18 and 24. They reduced their daily social media time from almost two hours to about half an hour. The study was published in JAMA Network Open.
After seven days, the participants filled out mental health questionnaires. The results showed clear improvements.
Anxiety symptoms dropped by 16.1%.
Depression went down by 24.8%.
Insomnia symptoms fell by 14.5%.
The strongest improvements appeared among those who already had more severe depression at the beginning.
The study found no changes in loneliness levels.
Dr John Torous of Harvard Medical School, a co-author of the study, said that social media reduction should not replace clinical mental health care. He also said the effects were different for each person. Some participants saw strong benefits, while others noticed very little change. Experts also pointed out that the study was not a randomised trial. This means that expectations may have shaped the results.
Even so, some specialists see value in the findings. Mitch Prinstein of the American Psychological Association said that taking breaks from social media is an easy and free step young people can take to improve their mental health. However, experts added that past research on digital detoxes has produced mixed outcomes. It is still uncertain whether the benefits last over time.