If you spent 30 minutes less a day on social media and more time exercising, your mental health would be greatly improved. This was recently demonstrated in a study conducted by a team from the Centre for Mental Health Research and Therapy at Ruhr University Bochum, led by assistant professor Dr Julia Blalovskaya.
After following this advice for a fortnight, the participants felt happier, more satisfied, less stressed about the COVID-19 pandemic and less depressed than those in the control group. These results persisted even six months after the study ended. The scientists recently published their findings in the Journal of Public Health.
Social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp ensure that we still feel connected to other individuals during the blockades and restrictions on connection brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. They diverted us from the pandemic-related stress that many experienced, which led to feelings of anxiety, insecurity and hopelessness.
However, using social media also has its downsides. Heavy use can lead to addictive behaviour, which can manifest itself in, for example, a strong emotional connection to social media. Conspiracy theories and fake news may also spread unchecked on social media, increasing anxiety.
“Given that we are not sure how long the coronavirus crisis will last, we wanted to know how to protect people’s mental health with services that are as free and low-threshold as possible,” explains Julia Blalovskaya. To find out whether the type and timing of social media use could help with this, she conducted an experimental study as part of her fellowship at the Centre for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS).
An experiment lasting two weeks
Julia and her colleagues recruited 642 participants and randomly assigned them to four groups of about the same size. The first group reduced their daily social media use by 30 minutes during the two-week intervention period. The second group increased their daily physical activity by 30 minutes while continuing to use social media as normal, as previous research has shown that physical activity may improve mood and reduce depressive symptoms. The third group increased their physical activity while also decreasing their social media use. The control group’s behaviour remained the same during the intervention period.
Before, during and for six months after the two-week intervention phase, participants answered online surveys about the duration, intensity and emotional significance of their social media use, physical activity, satisfaction with life, their subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, the psychological burden of the COVID-19 pandemic and their cigarette consumption.
Health and happiness in the digital age
The findings clearly show that reducing the amount of time spent on social media each day and increasing physical activity both have a positive impact on people’s well-being. And, in particular, the combination of these two interventions increased people’s satisfaction with their lives and subjective well-being, and reduced depressive symptoms.
This effect persisted over a long period of time: even six months after the end of the two-week intervention phase, participants in all three intervention groups spent less time on social media than before: i.e. about half an hour in the group that reduced their social media time or increased their exercise routine, and about three-quarters of an hour in the group that combined the two interventions.
Six months after the intervention was implemented, the combined group had one hour and 39 minutes more physical activity per week than before the experiment. The positive impact on mental health continued throughout the follow-up period.
“This shows us how important it is to reduce our availability online from time to time and go back to our human roots,” concludes Julia Blalovskaya.” These measures can easily be implemented into one’s daily life and are completely free – at the same time, they help us to stay happy and healthy in the digital age.”
