If you've ever wondered whether stepping back from social media might help you feel less anxious or down, a new study reports encouraging news. Even a one-week break from platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat offers a meaningful boost to emotional wellbeing.

A modest break from social media can improve young adults' mental health.

The research was designed to answer a simple yet pressing question: does using social media less actually help young people feel better?

Young adults with the most severe depression and anxiety at baseline experienced the greatest improvements.

To find out, the study recruited a demographic group that uses social media the most and is also at increased risk of depression, anxiety and sleep problems — nearly 300 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 24.

John Torous, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the digital mental health clinic at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and his colleagues at Beth Israel and the University of Bath, conducted the study remotely across the United States from March 2024 to March 2025. All the participants had smartphones and were fluent in English.

The research began with a two-week observation period during which participants used social media as usual. They also completed daily self-reports of their mental state and allowed scientists to collect passive data from their phones, including GPS movement, accelerometer readings and screen-state information, a method known as “digital phenotyping.” This approach, the authors explained, aimed to reduce some of the bias that comes with relying entirely on self-reported habits.

After this baseline period, participants could opt into a one-week “social media detox.” A total of 295 people chose to continue and were asked to stop using the major social media platforms which included Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and X — or at a minimum greatly reduce their use.

And reduce they did: average daily screen time on social media fell from about two hours to just 30 minutes. Roughly 6 percent of participants quit entirely during the detox week.

Before and after the detox, participants filled out standardized assessments measuring symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia, loneliness and problematic social media behaviors such as addiction and negative comparison.

The results were impressive. Participants' symptoms of anxiety dropped by an average of over 16 percent; depressive symptoms fell by nearly 25 percent and insomnia by 14.5 percent.

Teens with the most severe depression and anxiety at baseline experienced the greatest improvements. Notably, there was no improvement in loneliness, a finding that the authors suggested might reflect the useful role these platforms can play in keeping young adults connected.

Cutting back on connection-oriented apps may reduce the harmful comparisons or compulsive scrolling that contribute to depression and anxiety, but it can also temporarily reduce a sense of social community.

The most damaging behaviors may be addictive scrolling and negative self-comparison, not screen time alone.

While the findings are promising, they are not meant to be interpreted as a treatment for depression or anxiety. The results showed how cutting back on social media use could be a useful way to boost your mood or an adjunct to treatment for young adults who are receiving mental health care, Torous said. It's worth trying to take a break to see if it helps you feel better. “The averages are encouraging,” he said, “but they definitely don't tell the full story, the variance was just so tremendous,” he cautioned.

Ultimately, this study contributes to a larger conversation unfolding across psychology: does media itself harm young people, or does the impact depend on how it's used? The current research suggests that the most damaging behaviors may be addictive scrolling and negative self-comparison, not screen time alone.

And while no one is suggesting a total ban, Torous hopes that future research can offer the information needed to tailor detox recommendations to those who stand to benefit most. He also noted that banning social media outright could cause unintended consequences.

For now, the takeaway is simple: stepping back from social media, even briefly, may offer you a surprisingly quick lift in mood and better sleep. For some, that may make logging off worth it.

The study is published in JAMA Network Open.