Keep off Social Media for a week to reduce Depression and Anxiety, claims study

In a time when the usage of social media is not just limited to a particular age group, section or class of people a very interesting study has surfaced which claims that a detox of a mere week from social media platforms can help in reducing signs of depression and anxiety.

Working as the Yin and Yang of the society, social media shows exuberantly good as well as extremely evil sides of the society that we are living in. Today the major chunk of the world population has a vast number of social media applications installed on their ever-handy smartphones and the pressure to look good and portray one’s self on these platforms and also see all that is happening around is bound to take a toll on mental health. The lucrative nature of these apps compels us to cling to them for hours together further worsening the situation.

In the study conducted by the University of Bath, UK 154 individuals from the age group of 18 to 72 were divided into two groups. While one group was asked to keep from social media entirely, the other continued using social media as usual. During the research, it was found that some participants spent as much as 9 hours on social media every single day.

The research conductors asked the participants to rate their agreement with statements like “I’ve been feeling optimistic about the future” and “I’ve been thinking clearly” to measure wellbeing. To evaluate their depression levels, they were asked questions on the lines of, “how often during the past two weeks were they bothered by little interest or pleasure in doing things.” The anxiety was measured with the help of the General Anxiety Disorder Scale which looked at how often a person was bothered by feeling nervous or on edge, or was unable to stop worrying.

The results showed that those who took a sabbatical from social media for a week saw their well-being rise from an average of 46 to 55.93 on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. The levels of depression also saw a decrease from 7.46 to 4.84 whereas anxiety reduced from 6.92 to 5.94 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-8.

Dr Jeff Lambert, the lead author of the study said, “social media is a part of life and for many people, it’s an indispensable part of who they are and how they interact with others but if you are spending hours each week scrolling and you feel it is negatively impacting you, it could be worth cutting down on your usage to see if it helps.” He added, “Many of our participants reported positive effects from being off social media with improved mood and less anxiety overall. This suggests that even just a small break can have an impact.”

The team of researchers also plans to increase the follow-up period beyond a week to see the long-term benefits of the social media break because as of now idle scrolling is the most common activity undertaken by maximum users which is doing little to help in constructive productivity.