- Replacing 30 minutes of social media use a day with physical activity can improve emotional well-being and reduce stress, German researchers say.
- The benefits of exercise continued for up to 6 months after their study ended.
- Participants who cut back on social media and exercised more experienced greater happiness and less stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Reduced use of social media is also associated with less smoking.
Social media use exploded with the lockdowns and contact restrictions of COVID-19. Millions of people turned to Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and other platforms to escape feelings of isolation, anxiety and hopelessness.
However, too much screen time has led to addictive behaviors, stronger emotional ties to social media, and deeper mental anguish for many.
Researchers at Ruhr-Universitätt in Bochum, Germany investigated the effects of reducing social media use (SMU) and increasing physical activity, or both, on emotional well-being and tobacco consumption.
Julia Brailosvskaia, Ph.D., an assistant professor at the university’s Center for Mental Health Research and Treatment, led the two-week experiment.
Brailosvskaia and her team observed that the interventions they suggested may have helped increase participants’ life satisfaction. At a 6-month follow-up, subjects continued to report spending less time on social media, being more physically active, feeling happier, and smoking fewer cigarettes.
of Journal of Public Health recently published these findings.
The authors of the study noted that mental health “consists of two interrelated but separate dimensions: positive and negative.”
With this paradigm, they hypothesized that the positive dimension of their intervention would “increase life satisfaction and subjective happiness.” The negative dimension would reduce SMU’s “depressive symptoms and addictive tendencies.”
Medical News Today discussed this study with Dr. Sheldon Zablow, an author and nutritional psychiatrist. He was not involved in the research.
When asked about the effects of social media on mental health, Dr. Zablow asserted:
“If activities interfere with the usual basic, age-appropriate stages of economic self-sufficiency, socialization, or health maintenance, then they are harmful. Activities can be alcohol use, substance use, dietary choices, exercise choices, or entertainment choices – especially social media.
Dr. Zablow warned that excessive use of social media weakens interpersonal social bonds, which can negatively impact mental health.
MNT also spoke with Dr. David A. Merrill, adult and geriatric psychiatrist and director of the Pacific Neuroscience Institute’s Pacific Brain Health Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, about the current study. He was not involved in the research.
Dr. Merrill argued that the term social media is a “misnomer that is almost like a bait and switch,” designed “to increase user engagement.”
Excessive use of social media, he said, “can end up exacerbating” mental health issues for people with behavioral health conditions or addiction vulnerabilities.
“There’s the brain’s reward system that you get from clicking or scrolling or saving using social media,” said Dr. Merrill.
“I think [that the authors are] causally demonstrating that you both need to have a conscious awareness of the need to limit the self-soothing aspect of social media use, and you also need to have alternatives, so you need to have another way to bring joy to your life, and especially during the pandemic.”
As a psychiatrist, Dr. Zablow emphasized that “an essential part of any recommended treatment program is exercise. Psychotherapy and, when indicated, medication will not work well if a person does not exercise.
Dr. Zablow added that exercise increases the brain’s production of neurotransmitters, the brain’s “natural antidepressants and anti-anxiety molecules.”
Consequently, more exercise can build mental health, while less activity due to excessive social media use can limit healthy brain chemistry.
Dr. Brailosvskaia and her colleagues reasoned that “a conscious and controlled reduction in time spent in SMU, as well as an increase in time spent in physical activity can reduce the negative mental health consequences of the COVID-19 situation.” They also believed that combining both interventions could amplify this effect.
The professor mentioned that the methods can be easily adapted to everyday life with little cost, effort or risk of violating the COVID-19 protocols.
Further, the scientists expected that their experiment would reduce stress caused by COVID-19 and reduce smoking behavior.
The researchers recruited 642 healthy adult social media users and assigned them to 4 experimental groups.
The social media (SM) group had 162 individuals, the physical activity (PA) group of 161, a combination group of 159, and a control group of 160.
Over 2 weeks, the SM subjects reduced their daily SMU time by 30 minutes and the PA group increased their daily physical activity by 30 minutes. The combination group applied both interventions, while the control did not change their behaviors.
Following the World Health Organization
Participants completed online surveys and “daily compliance” diaries at the beginning of the trial, 1 week later, and after the 2-week period. They also submitted follow-up surveys at 1, 3, and 6 months after the experiment.
Dr. Brailosvskaia and her team concluded that their interventions helped people reduce the time they spend with SM.
Even 6 months after the experiment, “participants had reduced their initial daily SM time by about 37 minutes in the SM group, by about 33 minutes in the PA group, and by about 46 minutes in the combination group.”
Additionally, participants reported having a decreased emotional connection to social media.
All interventions also encouraged more physical activity. “Six months later, our participants had increased their initial weekly physical activity time by 26 minutes in the SM group, by 40 minutes in the PA group, and by 1 hour 39 minutes in the combination group,” the authors wrote.
The control group also increased their activity by 20 minutes.
Dr. Merrill was impressed with the study’s “stunning findings by combining reduced social media with increased physical activity.” He agreed with the notion that SMU limitations need a complementary activity that brings joy or a sense of accomplishment.
According to the study authors, the “longitudinal experimental design” of their current research allowed them to establish causality.
However, the study population lacked diversity. All participants were young, female, German, Caucasian, and highly educated.
Dr. Merrill felt that, although it would be “interesting” to repeat this investigation in the United States with a more diverse group, the results would be similar.
The study did not take into account which form of SMU the subjects were using or specify what type of physical activity the participants engaged in. The researchers hope that future work will focus more on these factors.
The research of Dr. Brailosvskaia suggests that modest changes in SMU and physical activity can help protect and improve mental health in a convenient and affordable way.
The professor and her team understand how SMU can minimize isolation and help spread the word.
From time to time, it is important to consciously limit access to the Internet and return to human roots – […] a physically active lifestyle – to stay happy and healthy in the digital age,” the researchers wrote.
