Excessive use of social media leads to a plethora of negative well-being issues including increased sense of loneliness, depression, anxiety, poor sleep, slothfulness, and a more sedentary and social-lacking lifestyle. Unfortunately, the fact that millions are heavy social media users makes these issues even more concerning.

However, the negative effects of social media can be reversed by decreasing it’s use. Published in Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, researchers found that even 15 minute per day reduction in social media use can improve health and well-being.

For the study, investigators recruited 50 undergraduate students from the UK between the ages of 18 to 30 years old. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group was the control group where there was no change in social media use. The second group was to reduce their social media usage. And the third group had to reduce their social media usage by 15 minutes and replace it with another leisure activity. The subjects also completed assessment measuring social media usage, loneliness, health, sleep quality, anxiety, and depression.

Overall, the reduce group decreased their social media usage by 37 minutes per day pn average with significant report in reduction in social media addiction as well as improvements in feeling of vitality, physical functioning, general health perception, and social role functioning. In this study, researchers did not find a difference in body pain, mental health, or emotional role functioning. Interestingly enough, no difference was seen in the reduction group plus activity substitution.

“These data demonstrate that, when people reduce their social media use, their lives can improve in many ways—including benefits for their physical health and psychological well-being,” said study author Phil Reed.

“That the group asked to reduce their usage and do something different did not show these benefits suggests that campaigns to make people healthier could avoid telling people how to use their time,” Reed continued. “They can resent it. Instead, give them the facts, and let them deal with how they make the reduction, rather than telling them to do something more useful—it may not be effective.”

So if you cannot delete your social media page for one reason or another, though most people should be able to or at least most of their platforms, just decreasing your usage of it can bring great benefits to your social, mental, and physical health.

P Reed et al. Reduction in social media usage produces improvements in physical health and wellbeing: an RCT. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science. 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-023-00304-7