Social Media Abstinence Failed to Improve Well-Being
A 2025 preregistered meta-analysis found that temporary social media abstinence did not significantly improve positive affect, negative affect, or life satisfaction across 10 adult experiments involving 4,674 participants.1 The result does not prove that every break is useless, but it challenges the generic “digital detox” claim that simply logging off reliably improves mood. Research Highlights …