Key messages:
- Concern about how smartphones affect users is widespread, with many users worrying they use their device too much.
- Blocking mobile internet for two weeks reduces smartphone use and improves well-being, mental health, and sustained attention.
- Despite the benefits of mobile internet, reducing constant connection to the digital world has positive effects.
Introduction
Smartphones have transformed the daily habits of billions of people by providing internet access from anywhere at any time, offering information, entertainment, and social media updates. Most adults own smartphones and spend nearly five hours a day using them. However, there is growing public concern about the negative impacts of smartphone use, with half of smartphone users and more than 80% of users under age 30 worrying they use their devices too much. Recent research has found individuals who spend more time on their smartphones have poorer subjective well-being, mental health, and attention abilities.
Objective
This month-long randomized controlled trial investigated how removing constant access to the internet through smartphones might impact psychological functioning.
Methods
The researchers used a mobile phone application to block all mobile internet access from participants’ smartphones for two weeks and objectively tracked compliance. This intervention targeted the feature that makes smartphones “smart,” the ability to access mobile internet while still allowing participants mobile connection through texts and calls and the internet via laptops or tablets.
Participants (n = 467) agreed to install a smartphone application that blocked all mobile internet access (including Wi-Fi and mobile data) from their phones for two weeks. The participants were randomly assigned to two groups. One group had their phones blocked for the first two weeks, during which the other group served as a control. The groups switched treatments for the second two-week period.
Results
Participants found the experiment difficult. Of the 467 who agreed to install the app, only 266 did so, and just 119 maintained the block for at least 10 days. Blocking internet access reduced average screen time from 314 minutes per day to 161 minutes per day. This change significantly improved subjective well-being, mental health, and objectively measured sustained attention abilities.
Discussion
The improvement in sustained attention ability was equivalent to being 10 years younger, and the reduction in symptoms of depression was higher than the average effect of antidepressants and similar to cognitive behavioural therapy. For the group who blocked internet access for the first two weeks, subjective well-being and mental health remained significantly higher at the four-week mark, even after returning online for two weeks.
The researchers attribute the positive effects of disconnection to increased time spent in the offline world, reduced media consumption, increased social connectedness, improved feelings of self-control, and increased sleep. According to the researchers, spending less time with a connected device may benefit many people.
