A study by researchers at the University of Bath (England) has shown that reducing the use of social networks improves our well-being and reduces levels of depression and anxiety. The author concludes that this is the benefit of do not use social networks for a weekthe time period analyzed in the study.

It’s hard to find someone completely unaware of social media. More or less we have all fallen for the temptation of these apps. To see how it affects us if we stop using it for a week, this study was conducted, published by the magazine Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networks.

In it, the researchers took a total of 154 people and gave them a questionnaire in which they evaluated their level of well-being and mental health. They found that they spend an average of 8 hours a week on social media.

They then divided them into two groups. While some have had to stop using social networks, others have had to use them normally. Of course, the researchers didn’t control that the first group stopped using it — even though they were told how to block or turn off notifications, for example — so that after the study week had passed, they could see how much they were consuming.

Some very illuminating conclusions

One week after the start of the study, the participants returned to answer the questionnaire. The researchers found that the first group reduced their social media use to just 28 minutes per week and concluded so they have experienced improvements in mental health: while well-being improves, anxiety and depression decrease.

Nonetheless, the researchers concluded by noting that further studies should extend these results to clinical populations and examine long-term effects.

Work, family, and other obligations mean that we often go for weeks very quickly, without all the time we’d like to dedicate to our hobbies. However, this study found that we spend an average of eight hours a week using social networks. Eight hours is a lot of minutes that we could spend cycling, for example.

Today, almost everyone knows that exercise is beneficial. And especially cycling brings great benefits.

While the study concludes something we can already guess at, it also leads us to reflect on how much time we spend on social networks we can dedicate to cycling, a healthy hobby as long as we practice it within our means and it takes time. we are far from the damage social networks can wreak on our mental health.