• Posted November 26, 2025

One Week Less on Social Media Linked to Better Mental Health

For many young adults, social media is where life happens: Friendships, news, stress, all rolled into a single screen.

But a new study suggests that stepping away, even for just one week, may help ease anxiety, depression and sleep problems.

Researchers tracked 295 young adults ages 18 to 24 who agreed to limit their social media use for seven days. Each participant was paid $150 to be in the study.

For the study, these young adults shrunk their average screen time from just under two hours a day on social platforms down to about 30 minutes a day.

After the week ended, participants completed mental health surveys. On average, the researchers found:

• Anxiety symptoms dropped by 16.1%

• Depression symptoms dropped by 24.8%

• Insomnia symptoms dropped by 14.5%

The study, published Nov. 24 in JAMA Network Open, showed the biggest improvement in people who already had more serious depression symptoms.

However, participants did not report changes in loneliness.

Study co-author Dr. John Torous, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston, told The New York Times that cutting back on social media shouldn’t "be your first-line or your only form of care."

"If you’re struggling with a mental health condition, and you have treatment already," he added, "it’s likely worth experimenting to see whether reducing social media helps you feel better."

He warned that the results aren’t a guarantee for everyone. Some participants felt much better, while others noticed little change.

“The averages are encouraging,” he said, “but they definitely don’t tell the full story, the variance was just so tremendous.”

One reason is that the study was not a randomized trial. Instead, people volunteered to take part, which means they may have expected improvements before the trial.

"The subjects would have known how they were expected to behave, and likely simply changed their responses accordingly," Christopher Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida who was not involved in the research, told The Times.

Other experts, however, say the findings still add something useful to the ongoing conversation about social media and mental health.

Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer of the American Psychological Association, called social media breaks "a simple and free solution that seems to lead to quick improvement."

"This is a solution that will empower most parents and young people themselves," he said in a report published by The Times. "Use far less social media, and there is a reasonable chance that young people will start to feel a lot better."

But experts in the field stress that results have been mixed in previous studies. Some research has found only small or no benefits from “digital detoxes,” and it's uncertain whether the effects last long term.

More information

Stanford Law School has more on social media and mental health.

SOURCE: The New York Times, Nov. 24, 2025