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A One-Week Break From Social Media Can Have a Big Payoff
Young women who take a short social media break show improved body image.
Posted August 24, 2024 Reviewed by Devon Frye
Both academic research and popular media articles are replete with evidence that social media use can have a negative impact on young people’s mental health. Researchers have been particularly concerned with the potential for social media imagery to negatively impact young women’s body image.
However, much of the data linking body image and social media use is correlational. That makes it difficult to know whether social media use causes body dissatisfaction in young women, or whether young women already struggling with body image may be more likely to turn to social media as a means of coping with their distress.
A new study out of York University in Toronto used an experimental design to test whether a one-week “break” from social media could improve young women’s body esteem. The results suggest the answer is yes.
How Social Media Fuels Body Dissatisfaction
Scroll through almost any young woman’s social media feed and it’s easy to see how social media can fuel body image disturbance. Endless photos and videos featuring women who seem to have “perfect” bodies, skin, and hair can leave women feeling like they’re falling short. That feeling that you’re not living up to appearance ideals can lead to body dissatisfaction, body shame, and eating-disordered attitudes and behaviors.
Many young women report being aware that social media has this negative impact on their body image and employ strategies like “unfollowing” body-focused accounts in an effort to reduce the impact. Though careful curating of one’s social media feeds can be a step in a healthy direction, algorithms generating suggested content, along with a constant stream of advertisements, make it impossible to truly control the content of your feed.
In this new study, researchers tested whether taking a one-week break from social media altogether could improve young women’s body image. The study was relatively small, with 66 undergraduate women completing both phases of the study. The women all described themselves as daily social media users who would be “willing and motivated to take a break from social media use.”
In the first phase of the study, the women met with the researcher and completed several measures related to body image. These measures included assessments of body satisfaction, general self-esteem, and the extent to which the women “buy into” cultural ideals around thinness (“internalization of the thin ideal”). The women were also instructed to download an app that would track their social media app usage.
Next, researchers randomly assigned the women to one of two conditions. In the experimental condition, the women were instructed to take a break from using social media; in the control condition, the researcher instructed the women to use social media as they normally would.
Women in the experimental condition were given detailed instructions that included tips like using an app blocker and signing out of all of one’s social media accounts. Women in both conditions were asked to restrict any social media use to their smartphone (vs. using a laptop or tablet, for example) for the period of the study.
A week later, participants met with the researcher again and completed the same measures. Participants also shared the data from their app tracker, which was used to calculate minutes spent on social media during the one-week period. Women in the “break” condition did tend to use their social media a bit during the week-long period (around 1.5 hours during the week), but much less than those in the control condition (over 16 hours).
What the Study Found
The women who took a social media break showed increases in self-esteem (across all domains—not just appearance self-esteem) and improved body satisfaction. These results were especially strong for women with high levels of thin-ideal internalization. In other words, the women who were most at risk for the negative body image effects of social media showed the most improvement from taking a social media break.
These results should be considered with some caution due to the study’s small sample size and relatively narrow sample (undergraduate women who were willing to take a break from social media). Additionally, the women in the study knew the study was focused on the body image effects of social media. Knowing this may have influenced their responses to study measures. Despite the study’s limitations, the results are promising and hint at a causal link between stepping away from social media and improved mental health for young women.
When they met with the researcher at the second study session, over half of the women in the “break” condition said that avoiding social media was difficult, but got easier after a couple of days. The authors also noted that women in the social media break condition reported replacing their social media time with activities likely to be healthier or more fulfilling, like talking with friends, reading, exercising, or sleeping.
If you’re struggling with body image, why not give a social media break a try? Unlike many mental health interventions, taking a break from social media is free! Taking a break can also give you more time to fill with activities that leave you feeling healthier and happier.
