New Study: Limiting Social Media Use Improve Well-being

By: Yassmine ElSayed

CAIRO, Dec. 27 (SEE) - Social Media networks have been recently an issue of psychological research. Questions are there about the psychological as well as the mental implications of excessive usage of those sites, to the extent that those sites can trigger addiction.

Recently media reports mentioned a new study which suggests that limiting your social media use can improve your wellbeing. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania asked undergraduate students to cut down their time spent on social media to a total of 30 minutes per day — and saw a significant improvement in their mental health.

Previous studies have associated the use of social media with an increase in symptoms of anxiety, and linked Facebook use with a decline in wellbeing.

A 2015 study from the Pew Research Center suggested that using social media might make you more stressed.

The University of Pennsylvania study indicated that the students who restricted their social media use demonstrated significantly lower levels of loneliness, and those who indicated a high level of depression at the start of the study experienced a "clinically significant" reduction in their symptoms.

Another interesting finding was a decrease in fear of missing out and anxiety. The researchers hypothesised that this could be "a result of the self-monitoring inherent in the study".

The researchers concluded that "limiting social media usage does have a direct and positive impact on subjective wellbeing over time, especially with respect to decreasing loneliness and depression."