If you reduce your social media use by half an hour a day, you will be happier and more committed to your job. A recent study shows that depressive symptoms can also be reduced.
Just half an hour a day has an effect: those who reduce their social media use by this amount of time are happier and more committed to their job. This is shown by a study by the Research and Treatment Center for Mental Health at the Ruhr University Bochum and the German Center for Mental Health. Researchers therefore advise reducing the time on so-called social media and recommend setting time limits.
In the short term, an escape from reality on social networks could lift the mood, said Julia Brailovskaia from the University Center. In the long term, however, dependency behavior can develop with the opposite effects. “We suspect that people tend to use social media to get positive emotions that they miss in their everyday work lives, especially when they feel overworked.”
A lasting effect
In the research team’s experiment, 166 people who used non-work-related social media for at least 35 minutes a day were divided into two groups. One group did not change their usage behavior, the other reduced it by 30 minutes a day for a week. Questionnaires completed at the beginning and end showed an improvement in job satisfaction and perceived stress among those who had spent less time on the platforms.
These subjects felt less overworked and were more engaged at work, Brailovskaia explained. The fear of missing something on the networks has also decreased. These effects persisted after the end of the experiment and even increased over time, it said.
Alienation from “real life”
Presumably the test subjects would have gained more time for work tasks and would have had to divide their attention less. “Our brain cannot cope well with constant distraction from a task,” says the psychologist. If you interrupt yourself frequently, it becomes more difficult to concentrate on your work. In addition, social media time may prevent people from getting in touch with colleagues in “real life,” which could lead to alienation.
According to the university, previous studies had shown that reducing social media time by 20 to 30 minutes could also reduce depressive symptoms.