According to a study from Swansea University, reducing social media use by 15 minutes a day can boost your health.
The results, published in the Journal of Technology in Behavior Science, revealed that the test volunteers who reduced their social media use by a mere 15 minutes per day observed a range of health benefits.
They had an average 15% improvement in immune function including fewer colds, flu, warts, and verrucae. They also noticed a 50% improvement in sleep quality, and 30% fewer depressive symptoms.
Reduced social media use can basically improve general health and immune function, while reducing levels of loneliness and depression, suggests the new research.
Do note that the study was conducted using a rather small sample size of 50 people. It consisted of 33 female and 17 male participants aged between 20 to 25 years.
Social media platforms are designed to be addictive and are associated with anxiety and depression, and even physical ailments—there are plenty of reports supporting this view.
So the small sample size does not mean this new Swansea study can be disregarded. What’s most interesting about the report is that the group which was asked to do something specific with the time gained daily by staying away from social media actually increased their usage of these apps by the most (25 minutes).
Those who were merely asked to reduce their usage of social media ended up spending 40 minutes less on such activity daily. Participants who were told to do nothing with the 15 minutes spent away from social media actually ended spending up to 10 minutes more (per day) than usual on these platforms.
Based on these revelations, Professor Phil Reed from Swansea University’s School of Psychology, concludes that people resent being told what to do with their time; it would be better to give them the facts related to social media use instead.
