Researchers blocked the internet access of participants' phones for two weeks, producing an astounding boost to their mental health.

A specialized iPhone app was used to block internet access, recording any time that the feature was disabled.

In numbers, nearly all the participants — 91 percent — improved on at least one of the three outcomes, while around three-quarters reported better mental health by the end.

The findings even suggest that the intervention had a stronger effect on depression symptoms than antidepressants, and was roughly on par with cognitive behavioral therapy.

What’s driving all this? Ward suggests that the simplest explanation is that the experiment forced participants to spend more time doing fulfilling things in the real world.

    • ashenone@lemmy.mlEnglish
      23·
      10 days ago

      I have a very similar experience as you, using the internet less as recreation and more as a tool definitely helped my mental health

    • antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      8·
      10 days ago

      How did you even do that, assuming you didn’t prevent your usage of computers and smartphones altogether? Just sheer willpower?

    • Dil@is.hardlywork.ingEnglish
      5·
      8 days ago

      Shoutout reddit for banning me, they accidentally helped me pull myself out of a cycle of looking at news that pissed me off and arguing with strangers. Lemmys a lot better with it, reddits just filled with controversy algorithim and bot posts. It got me to delete X too, same problem since musk took over, miss the old agorithim, but its never coming back. (old reddit is dead too, gotta accept it, was fun af while it lasted)

      When you get paid more based off engagement ofc mfs are going to be controversial, and ofc thats what they want since it keeps ppl on the app

        • Dil@is.hardlywork.ingEnglish
          2·
          8 days ago

          The public freakout sub apparently, commented on an alt on a post with thousands of comments, and it was an auto perm ban for my 3 accounts for evading a ban, I was someone who liked commenting into the void, not getting replys on front page posts felt weirdly good. The comment that got me banned wasn’t controversial, it was automatic and instant.