5 Tips To Spend Less Time On Social Media And Boost Your Mental Npr

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 6, 2025, 9:07 PM

5 tips to spend less time on social media and boost your mental npr

If you have ever sworn off social media for a week or two because you sensed it was feeding your anxiety or dampening your mood, you may be on to something. A new study out last week in JAMA Network Open found that cutting down on social media use even for a week can significantly reduce mental health symptoms in young adults. It's part of a growing body of research that shows that taking breaks from scrolling and posting can be a mental health boon, especially for young people. For example, a recently published meta-analysis found that limiting social media is tied to a statistically significant boost in "subjective well-being." Most studies on the impacts of social media ask users to recall how much time they spend on their phones or these platforms, as well as other aspects of their health like mood and... But that data is often unreliable, says psychiatrist John Torous, director of the Division of Digital Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and author of the new study.

People who block the internet from their smartphones spend more time on other activities that improve their wellbeing. Rob Dobi/Getty Images hide caption If you order up coffee on a mobile app while scrolling your social feeds, or can't stop watching videos and reading news articles on your phone at bedtime, listen up! Researchers studied what happened when people agreed to block the internet from their smartphones for just two weeks. And turns out, 91% felt better after the break. "What we found was that people had better mental health, better subjective well-being and better sustained attention," says Adrian Ward, a psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin.

The researchers included 467 participants, ages 18 to 74, who agreed to the month-long study aimed at testing the theory that constant connection to everything, all the time, has unintended consequences. Social media can push us to the dark side with negative content. A new study finds watching inspiring videos for just three minutes a day can boost your mood and reduce stress. If your social media feed is stressing you out, you are not alone. Algorithms want to keep you engaged so they can push you content that makes you mad, but there might be alternatives to just logging off. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports on a study that shows potential benefits to a few minutes of daily inspiration.

ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: What if the first thing that pulled you in this morning was the story of a cancer survivor with one functioning lung who climbed Mount Everest? SEAN SWARNER: I visualized myself every night for a year standing on top of the mountain. AUBREY: Sean Swarner's story has been viewed millions of times. He survived Hodgkin lymphoma and, at one stage, struggled to walk. Then he started training. Research finds people who feel low are more likely to seek out negative social media content.

But those who watch inspirational stories are more hopeful and less stressed. Oscar Wong/Moment RF/Getty Images hide caption Our social media feeds can push us to the dark side, with content full of strife and anger, or videos that make us feel bad about ourselves. But there is a way to reprogram what you see by making different choices. And a new study finds three to five minutes of inspiring content each day can help you feel more positive. Researchers scoured the internet for videos that elicited "wow" emojis or had gone viral.

They identified "underdog" narratives, where a person overcomes adversity, such as the real life story of Sean Swarner, a cancer survivor who set out to climb Mt. Everest. He had battled Hodgkin lymphoma, and had only one functioning lung. As part of the study, participants watched a video of Swarner describing his quest, and other videos like it, of people succeeding against the odds. You’re not alone if you feel mentally off after eyeballing yet another social media influencer’s dream vacation content or their impressive party spread they effortlessly whipped up. But while scrolling through TikTok or Instagram is an easy way to pass the time when you’re stuck in line or flat-out bored, a growing body of research suggests what many of us already...

Now, a new study spells out clear benefits from taking a break—and suggests you can see an uptick in your mood in as little as a week. The study, which was published in JAMA Network Open, makes a solid case for stepping back from social media, especially if your mental health isn’t as great as you’d like it to be. Still, “I think everybody could benefit from doing this,” Thea Gallagher, PsyD, a clinical associate professor at NYU Langone Health and cohost of the Mind in View podcast, tells SELF. Here’s why. For the study, researchers asked 373 people between the ages of 18 and 24 to share information about their regular social media use and answer questions about their mental health. The researchers discovered that the participants spent about 1.9 hours a day on a range of social media platforms, which translates to about 13.3 hours a week.

From there, the participants were asked to do a one-week social media detox, where they avoided using platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X, while reporting on their mental health status. (A total of 295 people actually did this.) During that time, their total screen time fell to about half an hour a day. The researchers discovered that the detox was linked with a 24.8% drop in symptoms of depression, 16.1% dip in symptoms of anxiety, and 14.5% drop in symptoms of insomnia—and the impact was even greater... However, the detox didn’t have an impact on feelings of loneliness. “These findings suggest that reducing social media use for one week may improve mental health outcomes in young adults,” the researchers wrote in the conclusion. If you want to spend less time on your phone in the new year, we have tips from Stanford psychiatrist Brad Zicherman.

There are just a few days left to come up with resolutions for the new year, like, what do you want to do better for yourself or maybe for others? How about resolving to avoid reaching for your phone first thing in the morning? BRAD ZICHERMAN: It's so much easier said than done. MCCAMMON: Don't I know it? Brad Zicherman is a psychiatrist at Stanford who treats children and adolescents. ZICHERMAN: I honestly find that working with teens with problematic screen use can be more challenging than working at times with teens who have severe opioid use disorders.

Have you ever picked up your phone to look at social media “for a minute,” only to realize 30 minutes or an hour—or more—has passed? Do you scroll to relax, but find that after a session on your phone you feel stressed, depressed or not good enough? You’ve probably noticed that too much time staring at your phone and mindlessly scrolling doesn’t leave you feeling your best. Maybe you even feel like your brain is broken: “Brain rot,” which refers to mental decline after watching too much meaningless content, was Oxford’s 2024 Word of the Year. “There’s a dulling of our senses when we’re passive in front of that much constant content. It leads us away from other pursuits with more cognitive potential and creativity,” says UNC Health psychiatrist Nadia Charguia, MD.

“There’s also a psychological impact, impacting the way we feel about ourselves when we experience comparison.” If you think you’re losing too many hours and too many brain cells to your algorithm, here are five tips to reduce your screen time.

5 Tips To Spend Less Time On Social Media And Boost Your Mental Npr

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