Medicalxpress | Tuesday, November 25, 2025 
I’m a psychologist who studies couples—5 ‘hard truths’ about marriage most people learn too late in life

In a new study, published in JAMA Network Open, 295 participants report promising mental health benefits after reducing their social media usage for a week. The cohort consisted of young adults from the ages of 18 to 24—the age group commonly associated with the highest social media usage, as well as a heightened risk of mental health issues. Although many self-reports have surfaced online indicating that reducing social media use has been beneficial in various ways, the scientific link between social media use and youth mental health is still debated, with past studies showing mixed results. – Measuring social media usage – Prior research on social media usage often relied on self-reported estimates of measures like screen time, communication habits, sleep patterns, and physical activity, but these kinds of self reports can be biased, leading to unreliable results. Objective, real-time data on social media use can provide a far more realistic picture of the impact of social media on mental health. So, to reduce bias introduced by self-reported usage, the study team used a method referred to as “digital phenotyping”—where participants passively tracked their app usage, GPS, accelerometer, and screenstate with their smartphones and reported these to the team. A baseline assessment consisted of a two-week data collection period before reducing social media. Then participants collected and reported their data during a...Read More