By Pat Powers (Radio Iowa)

An Iowa State University study is expanding on recent advisories from the American Psychological Association and the U.S. surgeon general that found the more people use social media, the lower their psychological wellbeing.

Ella Faulhaber is a PhD student in human computer interaction at ISU and she’s the lead author of the study.

“Social media is really prevalent nowadays,” Faulhaber says. “If you’re on a college campus, you ride the bus, you might be one student who doesn’t a have phone buried in their faces. Social media is really everywhere so we wanted to come up with a strategy in order to improve people’s wellbeing when it comes to social media usage.”

Faulhaber offers some suggestions for cutting back on social media usage, and they start with creating an awareness.

“Most people don’t even know how much they’re using social media, so you can set a timer on your phone,” Faulhaber says. “There are many built-in wellness apps, you can become aware if you use it. And then also give yourself grace, so really understand that the design and the character of social media platforms is to keep you engaged, keep your attention, keep you scrolling.”

Faulhaber notes, it can be very difficult to adhere to time limits in an effort to trim your screen time.

“Just don’t give up,” she says. “Our study has shown it is doable. Loneliness, depression, anxiety all go down once you use your phone less, once you use social media less.”

The ISU study found college students who cut their social media use to 30 minutes per day scored significantly lower for anxiety, depression, loneliness and fear of missing out at the end of a two-week experiment, when compared to the control group.