By Trisha Pasricha, MD - Washington Post<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Studies have shown loneliness and depression scores rapidly improve in adults who quit or limit social media. Two weeks after quitting, I felt a gratifying shift in my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I keep hearing about the harms of social media. Would limiting social media improve my health? Why is it so hard to quit?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The term social media can be ironic: It suggests a connection to others despite being related to our own loneliness and isolation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some studies<\/a> have shown when adults quit or limit social media, loneliness and depression scores improve \u2014 and rapidly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other data is less clear<\/a>: While social media use is often associated with poor mental health, it can be hard to say which comes first. But for many, the possibilities suggested by the data we do have \u2014 from poor sleep<\/a> to ADHD risk<\/a> \u2014 is unsettling enough to want to make a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quitting social media isn\u2019t easy. But this is not a \u201cfailure of willpower,\u201d said U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, who has called for warning labels<\/a> on social media. The best product engineers in the world are using cutting-edge neuroscience to maximize our time on their platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, in a study<\/a> looking at brain scans, 30 university students were randomized to view videos according to the recommendations of Douyin (a Chinese social media platform owned by TikTok\u2019s parent company). Personalized recommendations utilized history from participants\u2019 own accounts, while others viewed randomly recommended videos. Researchers found the personalized video algorithm activated participants\u2019 brain reward pathways \u2014 more so than watching a general stream of videos \u2014 and simultaneously decreased activation of brain areas that regulate self-control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other brain scan studies have found that\u00a0\u201cliking\u201d and receiving \u201clikes\u201d<\/a>\u00a0on photos on Instagram also activate areas of the reward pathway: The more likes received<\/a>, the greater that influence. And it\u2019s not surprising that researchers have likened endless scrolling to the\u00a0intermittent conditioning of playing slots<\/a>: Experience has taught you that you\u2019ll stumble across a winner sooner or later, so you keep coming back for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can I quit social media?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Murthy said he made a pact with two good friends to keep each other accountable about their social media use<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe kept each other on track,\u201d Murthy said. \u201cAnd I will say that I noticed some pretty profound differences in my own life. And they did, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve experimented with quitting. Today, I deliberately use those social media platforms that bring me joy, and I\u2019ve quit or use sparingly those that do not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I started by doing something that I now recommend to everyone: \u201cpretend\u201d to quit for two weeks. I signed out of my Facebook account and changed my password to something absurd, making it difficult to sign back in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first few days were a little discomforting. I used to have a routine of checking certain groups, such as of fellow physician moms etc. I also often got news through social media. Instead, I needed to go directly to news sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I didn\u2019t anticipate was what I gained: I made myself breakfast, sent more friendly texts to my sister and was more productive at work. I also felt better. I wasn\u2019t spending my energy reading musings of people I never knew in the first place. I also realized that I wasn\u2019t feeling as supported by the physician-mom group as I thought I was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After two weeks, things were going so well that I extended it to four weeks. When I did log in \u2014 for what turned out to be the final time \u2014 it was gratifying to see how irrelevant a month\u2019s worth of posts and updates appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Are there benefits to social media?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The alarms on the harms of social media have been sounding for good reason. But there are a few areas where there can be benefits. That includes support groups, which can offer a sense of community and acceptance that may be hard for many people to access in real life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other studies have found adults who use social media to communicate with friends and loved ones feel less socially isolated<\/a> than those who don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Overall, we still need more data on the benefits in addition to the risks of social media, especially on what kinds of people are most affected and the ramifications of certain design features and content. Murthy and others have called upon social media companies to release their data to independent researchers to help answer these unknowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response, Meta announced a pilot program<\/a> this year that will allow select external researchers access to their data to study the effects of social media on youth well-being. The studies are expected to be completed within the next one to two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I want my patients to know<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Are the benefits enough to justify the negatives? Murthy suggests asking yourself how social media makes you feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany people I encounter across the country say, \u2018You know, I feel pretty good. And then I go on social media, and I check my feed and then I suddenly feel worse,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Comparisons between yourself and peers (or yourself and celebrities) are often unrealistic, and it\u2019s easy to feel angry or hopeless when getting caught in a negative news cycle. You may also see people doing fun, exciting things without you and feel left out.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n If social media leaves you feeling more upset than affirmed, that\u2019s a problem. It is also concerning if social media is taking away from sleep, meaningful in-person interaction or your work or learning time. Try taking a break and seeing how you feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Trisha Pasricha, MD - Washington Post Studies have shown loneliness and depression scores rapidly improve in adults who quit or limit social media. Two weeks after quitting, I felt a gratifying shift in my life. I keep hearing about the harms of social media. Would limiting social media improve my health? Why is it ...continue reading \"I Limited Social Media And Quickly Saw Health Benefits\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,6,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-lower-stress-levels","category-simple-psychology-life-skills","category-some-helpful-tips","h-entry","hentry","h-as-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalmoodlevels.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalmoodlevels.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalmoodlevels.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalmoodlevels.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalmoodlevels.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/naturalmoodlevels.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/naturalmoodlevels.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalmoodlevels.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalmoodlevels.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalmoodlevels.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}