Why Young Adults Should Take A One Week Social Media Break
We all know that young adults are addicted to social media and seemingly are so addicted to that the idea of taking a break from it seems impossible. If you…
Close Up Of A Line Of High School Students Using Mobile Phones
We all know that young adults are addicted to social media and seemingly are so addicted to that the idea of taking a break from it seems impossible. If you are under 30, you don't have recall of what the world was like before the advent of all the various social media outlets.
In the early 2000's we saw the introduction of Myspace which was primarily aimed at people aged 10 to 25. It was the first of it's kind that a mass awareness in the public. Before long Mark Zuckerberg rolled out Facebook after it was a hit for the students at Harvard University.
The rest is history. Facebook became a worldwide phenomenon with millions of people all over the globe signing up and searching for friends that were also on it. Of course, after that came Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok and a host of other social media sites that captured the hearts and minds of people of all ages.
It is the young adults that grew up with these sites that we are most concerned with because we don't really know what it is doing to their brains. For older people, we were already fully developed before these sites came on line so we probably aren't as susceptible to the downsides of spending so much time on them.
Here's the study and findings on what a 7 day social media sabbatical does for young adults
Young adults who limited social media use for seven days showed significant mental health improvements, according to new research. The study tracked 295 participants ages 18 to 24 who reduced daily social platform time from nearly two hours to about 30 minutes.
Results showed anxiety symptoms dropped 16.1%, depression symptoms fell 24.8%, and insomnia decreased 14.5%. Study co-author Dr. John Torous from Harvard Medical School told The New York Times that cutting social media shouldn’t “be your first-line or your only form of care.” He noted “the averages are encouraging, but they definitely don’t tell the full story, the variance was just so tremendous.”
American Psychological Association’s Mitch Prinstein called social media breaks “a simple and free solution that seems to lead to quick improvement.” However, experts note mixed results in previous studies. (Story URL)
This is very encouraging yet not surprising news on what taking a 7 day social media break can do to reduce depression and other anxiety symptoms, but it would seem to be a good idea for anybody regardless of age. Maybe your New Year's resolution should include taking a break from all of the noise on social media. Try reading more books in your spare time, you won't regret it.
