Switch off, feel better: Why quitting Facebook and Instagram may lift your mood

A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has delved into a question that has sparked considerable debate among researchers: does stepping away from social media enhance happiness? The findings suggest a positive answer, but with essential nuances. The paper, titled "The Effect of Deactivating Facebook and Instagram on Users' Emotional State," monitored the experiences of thousands of users who chose to deactivate their accounts. Results indicated a noticeable boost in emotional well-being for those who stayed off these platforms for an extended period. Researchers from prestigious institutions, including Stanford, Princeton, and MIT, collaborated with Meta to conduct two parallel randomized controlled trials prior to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. They enlisted 19,857 Facebook users and 15,585 Instagram users, all of whom spent a minimum of 15 minutes daily on their platforms. Participants were divided into two groups: a treatment group comprising approximately 27% of the total, who received $150 to deactivate their accounts for six weeks, and a control group that was paid $25 to deactivate for just the initial week. Both groups later filled out surveys evaluating their feelings of happiness, depression, and anxiety over the previous four weeks. The results revealed that users who deactivated their Facebook accounts for six weeks experienced a 0.060 standard deviation improvement in emotional well-being, while Instagram users reported a 0.041 standard deviation enhancement. This translates to roughly 3.8% more individuals expressing that they often feel happy rather than just sometimes. The benefits varied significantly among different demographics. The positive effects of quitting Facebook were more pronounced among older users, while younger women experienced greater advantages from stepping away from Instagram. Notably, women aged 18-24 saw a remarkable increase in emotional well-being, with a rise of 0.111 standard deviations, exceeding the improvements noted in other groups. Interestingly, the study found that quitting social media does not always lead to reduced screen time. Instead, users often redirect their attention to other applications on their smartphones. "Most of the time freed by Facebook deactivation and all of the time freed by Instagram deactivation is substituted for other smartphone apps," the researchers noted. This indicates that the emotional uplift is not solely about disconnecting from the internet but also about avoiding the specific content and interactions that these platforms foster.