Those who stayed off Facebook longer showed a measurable improvement in emotional well-being compared to the control group.
A massive study out of Stanford University found that people who stopped using Facebook in the weeks before the 2020 US election reported better emotional well-being, though the same effect was weaker for Instagram.
Researchers surveyed roughly 36,000 users of Facebook and Instagram and divided them into two groups. One group, about 27 percent of participants, was paid to deactivate their accounts for six weeks. The rest served as a control group and only stepped away for one week.
Those who stayed off Facebook longer showed a measurable improvement in emotional well-being compared to the control group. The gains were most pronounced among users over 35, people without college degrees, and undecided voters. Instagram users saw only a slight improvement, and that result did not hold up under stricter statistical testing.
The study also found that participants did not replace social media time with more offline activity. Instead, most of the freed time was spent on other apps. Researchers said this suggests the emotional changes were tied to the platforms themselves rather than a general reduction in screen time.