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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

The classic opening to the Charles Dickens novel A Tale Of Two Cities? Or how to sum up a recent set of findings regarding taking a social media break?

Two recently published articles caught our eye. Both articles are on the mental health impacts of taking a break from social media. What’s interesting though is that both articles seem to have very differing conclusions. One study’s results show that a social media detox improved mood and general mental health while the other results said it had little to no impact.

So, what gives? Why did the same topic effectively yield two totally different results? The answer is in understanding the research itself. 

The first study that we’ll dig into involved a team of researchers and 467 participants that were involved in a month-long study. Here, scientists placed apps on the research participant’s mobile phones, blocking all internet use for two weeks, but still allowing phone calls and texts. These users still had the ability to use the internet via desktop computers, just not from their phones. 

The results? 91% of the participants saw improvements in mental health, general well-being, and/or attention-span after the two-week social media break. 

The other published article was quite different. The second study’s results utilized a meta-analysis, meaning they analyzed data pooled from many different already published articles to draw a greater conclusion. In this case they looked at ten existing studies to see what overall conclusions can be drawn from published research. This meta-analysis included the data from 4,674 adults. 

The objective here was looking for three specific measures: Positive Affect, Negative Affect and Life Satisfaction. Results from the multi-paper analysis appear to show no significant impact from a social media break. Perhaps this is because some of these participants only did the study for a week — too short of a time frame to make a difference. Or the fact that some of the study results included participants still using social media mid-study. It’s also important to note that the first study was focused on eliminating all internet usage, specifically on mobile phones, unlike the studies included in the meta-analysis.

Nonetheless, while the results may vary, the details of the study really do matter for understanding the conclusions. Another thing that both studies highlight here is the growing nature of concern over our relationship to social media. Having a super computer with access to the entire world’s knowledge and entertainment, available 24 hours a day is a relatively new phenomena.

How will our minds be impacted by this technology? There’s only one way to find out — by doing the research! That’s exactly what these scientists are doing in real-time as this technology and social media continue to develop and further become a part of our lives. 

As always thanks for listening and stay tuned for more breaking science news!