Reducing Screen Time Improves Mental and Physical Health

The study shows that “there are practices you can engage in to support a more successful detox from your internet, specifically the phone,” says Kelley Cours Anderson, assistant professor of marketing at the College of Charleston. She studies use of digital technology and well-being but was not involved in this research. 

The study is particularly significant, says Nick Allen, professor of clinical psychology and director of the Center for Digital Mental Health at the University of Oregon, also not involved in the study. It shows a cause-and-effect relationship, he says, between smartphone use and measures of psychological health, in contrast to a lot of research in the field designed only to show correlations between them.

Many participants had a hard time staying off the apps. Of the original group that committed to the study, 266 set up the blocking app, but only 119 kept the app active for at least 10 of the study’s 14 days. “Being able to have endless entertainment and communication with people around the world at our fingertips is obviously valuable,” Castelo says. Access to those functions is a hard habit to break, especially social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, which are designed to consume as much of our attention as possible, he says.

One limitation of the study is that the participants were already highly motivated to change their smartphone use, so it’s unclear whether a less motivated group would experience the same effects. Participants also knew the study was about smartphone use and well-being and might have expected they were supposed to feel better during the period of restricted internet access and reported that to researchers, even if they didn’t. The results are based on data from the entire group – including those who didn’t stick to the restrictions – though the positive effects were larger for people who kept the block in place for at least 10 days. “Any kind of reduction that you can manage in how much time you’re looking at your phone can probably be helpful,” Castelo says. 

Here are some tips for cutting back your smartphone scrolling:

It’s OK to start small. You can use an app to block or limit time or your phone’s own settings to set time limits on different apps or websites. Stepping away entirely from your phone for certain periods seems helpful, but it doesn’t have to be two weeks, Anderson says. Try a day or a few hours, she suggests.

Figure out which smartphone functions are useful to you. “Learn to tune into when your phone use is helpful and enjoyable and when it feels unproductive and, for want of a better term, soul-destroying,” Allen says. For example, evidence suggests that actively using your phone – such as communicating with family and friends, practicing your Italian, solving a puzzle – is better than mindlessly scrolling social media or other content, he says. 

Fill your life with plenty of offline activities, preferably with others. Take a cue from the people in the study and replace digital time with physical activity, time in nature or a new hobby, for example, and do it with other people. Forging social connections can help ease the FOMO some people feel when they step away from their smartphones, Anderson says, adding, “We are social beings.”