People began spending more time than usual on social media during the COVID era to get their minds off of the lockdown, isolation, worry, and helplessness they were feeling. Because of this, some people have developed unhealthy dependencies on various forms of social media. People now spend a significant portion of their waking hours perusing their social media feeds. The habitual use of mobile devices disconnects them from their surroundings and the people in them. These days, even when individuals are in the same room together, they won’t engage in conversation; instead, they’ll stay glued to their phones. It may also have an effect on our capacity to concentrate, which in turn can have negative consequences for our career, personal life, and mental health. While browsing social media on their phones, users may be judging themselves unfavorably to others, whether in terms of their families, trips, or careers. In addition to lowering one’s opinion of oneself, this may also cause one to become overly self-conscious and self-critical.
Although studies have shown that social media’s positive features may boost your mood and happiness for a while, they also warn that overexposure to these platforms can lead to negative consequences including increased depressive symptoms and addictive behaviors of social media use.
However, a recent study shows that swapping even 30 minutes per day of social media use for physical exercise will improve your mood. The Ruhr Universitat in Bochum, Germany conducted a study to evaluate the effects of decreasing one’s usage of social media and increasing one’s level of physical activity, or both, on one’s mental well-being as well as their intake of cigarettes.
1) The study involved random assignment of 642 participants to one of four groups of similar size.
2) The first group cut their daily social media time by 30 mins.
3)The second bunch continued using social media as usual but added 30 minutes of exercise to their daily routine.
4)The third group used a balanced method, with participants cutting back on social media while also ramping up their exercise routine.
5) The fourth group which is a control group showed no changes.
Each participant was surveyed before the study, every two weeks during the trial, and again six months after the study ended. Researchers found that people felt better when they used social media less, especially when they worked out regularly. During the pandemic, people used social media more than ever as they tried to stay in touch. According to the findings of the study’s researchers, participants in all three non-control groups reported spending less time on social media. Following the intervention for six months, those in the combination group increased their weekly amount of physical activity by one hour and 39 minutes. The beneficial effect on mental health was shown to persist for the entirety of the follow-up period.
In this era of digital technology, wellness and joy may be achieved: The research cited above has demonstrated that exchanging only thirty minutes of time spent on social media for time spent exercising may have a favorable influence on your life. According to the findings of the study, the beneficial impacts of the two-week period continued for as long as six months after the experiment was over.
