Disconnecting to reconnect: the impact of a one-week social media detox on mental wellbeing and the roles of offline social connectedness and extraversion

Abstract

As concerns about the impact of social media on mental wellbeing grow, social media detoxes (periods of disconnecting) are becoming increasingly popular. This study investigated whether a one-week social media detox could improve mental wellbeing among young adults and whether this effect is mediated by offline social connectedness and moderated by extraversion. In a randomized controlled trial (N = 71, age 18–25, 62% female), participants either abstained from social media for one week or maintained their usual use. Results showed a significant improvement in mental wellbeing for the detox group (F(1, 69) = 21.17, p < .001, partial η² = .235). However, offline social connectedness did not mediate the relationship between the detox and wellbeing. Furthermore, extraversion did not moderate the effect of the detox on offline social connectedness. These findings contribute to the mixed results of previous studies on the mental wellbeing effects of social media detoxes. Additionally, this study adds to the limited literature on offline social connectedness as a possible explanatory mechanism, and is among the first to explicitly examine the role of the personality trait extraversion in this context. Together, findings suggest that other mechanisms may underlie the benefits of a detox. Future research should consider alternative explanations and use larger, more diverse samples and objective measures of screen time to better understand for whom and under what conditions social media detoxes are effective.