EasyBreezyMind
1 peer-reviewed source, DOI-verifiedUpdated Oct 1, 2026How we verify
“Quit social media and you’ll feel better” is common advice. This randomized trial tracked students’ real phone use over most of an academic year to test it.
| Study type | Randomized controlled trial |
|---|---|
| Who took part | University students |
| What was tested | Limiting Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to 10 minutes a day vs. no limit |
| Published | PLOS ONE, 2022 |
| Free to read | Full text on PubMed Central |
| Licence | Open access, Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) |
What the researchers did
Researchers tracked participants’ daily digital activity across three quarters of an academic year. Half were randomly assigned to restrict the three apps to a maximum of 10 minutes a day.
What they found
- People with the limit switched to instant messaging and did not reduce their total time on devices.
- The researchers found no significant effect on wellbeing or academic success.
- This contrasts with earlier correlational studies that linked social media use with lower wellbeing.
What this doesn’t prove
- It studied students; other groups may respond differently.
- People replaced social media with messaging, so total screen time didn’t fall.
- It tested one specific kind of limit, not every way of changing how you use social media.
How to use this
Rather than a blanket ban, notice how you use your phone. If late scrolling eats into sleep, protect your evening instead — try our Caffeine Cut-off and evening Worry Time.
Limiting Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to 10 minutes a day did not significantly change students’ wellbeing or grades; participants shifted time to instant messaging instead.
Summary written by EasyBreezyMind in our own words. Original article: Collis A, Eggers F (2022). Effects of restricting social media usage on wellbeing and performance: A randomized control trial among students. PLOS ONE. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0272416. © The authors. Published open access under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. This summary is educational and is not endorsed by the authors.