Impact of curbing social media use
However, in contrast to some previous digital detox studies we did not observe an improvement in our participants’ wellbeing. On the contrary, they reported a reduction in positive emotions over the course of the abstinence period.
Social media provides powerful and quantifiable social rewards through likes, shares and gaining followers. While it also offers quick bouts of entertainment and fun, research shows that it is often these social rewards that drive compulsive checking of social media.
Humans are social animals – feeling part of a group, being accepted and receiving praise are universal needs. Social media is a convenient and accessible tool to satisfy these needs anytime and anywhere we want, and provides connection that may be lacking in a world of remote working.
But these social rewards can quickly turn into unpleasant experiences. Receiving likes can turn into chasing likes, and a feeling of disappointment if your post performs worse than expected. Seeing others’ lives can lead to fomo (fear of missing out) or envy, and in the worst cases, users may be victims of unpleasant or hateful comments.
To that end, we also observed a reduction in negative emotions when participants cut down on social media use. They felt slightly less miserable, sad and mad during the study.
On the whole, abstaining from social media seems to remove both positive and negative emotions – for some people, the net effect on wellbeing may be zero.
Can you be addicted to social media?
Perhaps the most enlightening finding was how little our participants missed social media. They did not report increased desires, urges or cravings to check their accounts during the study period, despite dramatically reducing their screen time.
It seems that curbing social media use does not elicit “withdrawal” symptoms as sometimes seen when stopping drug use. With that in mind, we urge you to be cautious in using terms like “addiction” to talk about social media use.
Framing social media use in addiction terms risks demonising technology and pathologising normal behaviour. Labelling users as “addicted” can lead to stigma and to ignoring other psychological problems that may underlie excessive use behaviours. In our view, the term addiction should be reserved to describe a disease, which involves lasting changes in the brain’s reward system.
Ultimately, social media has both positive and negative aspects, and it may just be the negative parts that people feel they need to detox from.
Perhaps a better way to think about improving your relationship to social media is similar to how you think about improving your diet. Both food and social media satisfy natural desires – energy for the former and social contact for the latter.
In both cases, you need to know your limits and prioritise healthy rewards. This may mean changing your view of how connected or liked you really need to be, and unfollowing accounts or deleting apps that make you feel bad.
