A week off social media will boost spirits before New Year, – psychologists

According to scientists, a positive effect reached by having a social media time-out is particularly noticeable among those who uses them continually and might feel jealous of their social media friends.

As a rule, network users affirm social media allow staying in touch with friends, sharing something positive and following the news.

In their new research sociologists decided to find out what effects can be produced as a result of the week-long break from the network use and establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the time-out and the results obtained.

1095 volunteers participated in the test, out of whom 86% were females. An average age of the respondents is 34 years, each of them having on average 350 friends and spending in social media over an hour a day. All the participants fell into two groups: the former continued to use networks in a usual way, the latter took a week break.

The surveys, conducted at the beginning and at the end of the experiment, revealed a significant positive effect for the users who were accustomed to spending plenty of their time in networks, passive users, as well as those who felt jealous of others: their mood improved a great deal, while the degree of life satisfaction increased. The effect was not vivid among those who use social media to a smaller extent.

At the same time, 13% of the research participants were not able to bear a week break, which proves their clear addiction.

The authors of the experiment remark that reduction of the time spent in social media, as well as live chat can considerably lift up an emotional background of the people who are attached to social networks.

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