A week without entering networks like Facebook , Instagram or TikTok helps improve mental health .
A week without using social networks such as Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and TikTok could improve people’s well-being and reduce mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety .
It is one of the conclusions reached by a study carried out by a team of researchers from the University of Bath (United Kingdom), who wanted to know how the use of these platforms affects, focusing research on the effects on mental health of the subjects with a break of one week.
As reported by this institution in the journal ‘Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking ‘, which collects the results of the study, the consumption habits of 154 people between the ages of 18 and 72 who used the networks on a daily basis were taken as a reference, who were divided into two groups, one of them a control group, which was able to continue using social networks .
The other group of participants was asked to take a one-week break, in which they stayed away from their social media accounts such as Instagram , Twitter , Facebook or TikTok , and which resulted in “significant improvement” in well-being, depression and anxiety .
On the other hand, this study also found that people who took the one-week break reported using these social networks for an average of 21 minutes in that time, compared to an average of seven hours for the control group, which had no restrictions.
“Many of our participants reported noticing positive effects of staying away from social media . These include improved mood and less anxiety . This suggests that even a short break can have an impact,” said lead researcher from the Department of Health of the Bathz, Dr. Jeff Lambert.
The researchers who have carried out this study have advanced that they plan to take this experiment to different younger populations or with physical and mental health problems to see how this disconnection could benefit them.
The use of social networks, constantly growing
The wide variety of platforms, the connection and closeness they offer and their free nature in most cases are some of the factors that explain why many users use social networks.
Over time, dedication to TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram has increased to the point that as of 2022, the average daily use of social networks worldwide amounted to 147 minutes per day, two minutes more than in 2021.
According to data from Statista, users find contradictions in the use of these platforms. On the one hand, they feel that thanks to them they had been able to access more information and that they had favored communication and freedom of expression.
On the other hand, the people surveyed also said that they felt that social networks had worsened their personal privacy and increased polarization in politics and distractions.
However, users access social networks for a variety of reasons, with maintaining contact with friends and family being the main justification, 47.6% of the time.
On the other hand, 36.3% of those surveyed connect to them to have fun and hang out, while 35.1% do so to read and access information, and 31.6% use them to search for content. .
29.5% of Internet users have an account on these social networks to check what topics are being discussed, 27.7% of them to find inspiration and to buy, and 23.9% to make new contacts.
Users of Twitter, TikTok and Instagram, among other platforms, also consider that social networks have an impact on certain aspects of society, such as access to information, polarization in politics and quality of life in general.