@article{ref1,
title="Taking a one-week break from social media improves well-being, depression, and anxiety: a randomized controlled trial",
journal="Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking",
year="2022",
author="Lambert, Jeffrey and Barnstable, George and Minter, Eleanor and Cooper, Jemima and McEwan, Desmond",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="The present study aimed to understand the effects of a 1-week break from social media (SM) (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok) on well-being, depression, and anxiety compared with using SM as usual. We also aimed to understand whether time spent on different SM platforms mediates the relationship between SM cessation and well-being, depression, and anxiety. We randomly allocated 154 participants (mean age of 29.6 years) to either stop using SM (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok) for 1 week or continue to use SM as usual. At a 1-week follow-up, significant between-group differences in well-being (mean difference [MD] 4.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.0-6.8), depression (MD -2.2, 95% CI -3.3 to -1.1), and anxiety (MD -1.7, 95% CI -2.8 to -0.6) in favor of the intervention group were observed, after controlling for baseline scores, age, and gender. The intervention effect on well-being was partially mediated by a reduction in total weekly self-reported minutes on SM. The intervention effect on depression and anxiety was partially mediated by a reduction in total weekly self-reported minutes on Twitter and TikTok, and TikTok alone, respectively. The present study shows that asking people to stop using SM for 1 week leads to significant improvements in well-being, depression, and anxiety. Future research should extend this to clinical populations and examine effects over the longer term.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2152-2715",
doi="10.1089/cyber.2021.0324",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2021.0324"
}