Doctors have been warning about the mental health problems caused by prolonged screen time. A study published in JAMA Network Open concluded that reducing this activity helps reduce anxiety, stress, insomnia, and promotes socialization.

The idea was to ask the participants, nearly 400 young people between 18 and 24 years old, not to use Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X for seven days. Dr. John Torou, co-author of the study, notes that some participants did not complete the test. Nevertheless, the results are encouraging, as there was significant clinical improvement “across key areas after just seven days. The data indicated that symptoms of depression decreased by 24.8%, anxiety by 16.1%, and sleep problems fell by 14.5 %.”

Digital phenotyping revealed that, although social media use dropped from about two hours a day to just 30 minutes, total screen time increased slightly by 4.5 %, and participants spent 6.3 % more time at home. This suggests that participants shifted from endlessly scrolling through TikTok to other digital activities such as messaging, browsing the internet, or playing games.

According to the specialist, “the problem isn’t the screen itself, but how we use it. The study indicates that screen time has a weak association with mental health, since what’s truly harmful is problematic use, such as negative social comparison or emotional addiction to the platforms.”

M.Pino

Source: xataka

(Reference image source: Panos Sakalakis on Unsplash)

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