6-week Facebook, Instagram break linked to improved mental health: Stanford study

A massive study out of Stanford University found that people who stopped using Facebook in the weeks before the 2020 US election reported better emotional well-being, though the same effect was weaker for Instagram.

Researchers surveyed roughly 36,000 users of Facebook and Instagram and divided them into two groups. One group, about 27 percent of participants, was paid to deactivate their accounts for six weeks. The rest served as a control group and only stepped away for one week.

Those who stayed off Facebook longer showed a measurable improvement in emotional well-being compared to the control group. The gains were most pronounced among users over 35, people without college degrees, and undecided voters. Instagram users saw only a slight improvement, and that result did not hold up under stricter statistical testing.

The study also found that participants did not replace social media time with more offline activity. Instead, most of the freed time was spent on other apps. Researchers said this suggests the emotional changes were tied to the platforms themselves rather than a general reduction in screen time.

For Instagram, the strongest reported benefits appeared among women ages 18 to 24, though the overall effect was limited.

The research is one of the largest experiments examining social media use and is the first to isolate Instagram’s impact in this way. 

The study's release comes as news that  Meta is preparing a new round of layoffs. According to Reuters, the company plans to cut about 10 percent of its workforce beginning May 20, which would affect roughly 8,000 employees. Additional layoffs are expected later in the year, though details are still being finalized.

The restructuring follows earlier cuts in 2022 and 2023, when the company eliminated about 21,000 jobs during what it called a “year of efficiency.” The current move comes as Meta continues investing heavily in artificial intelligence.

Other tech firms have taken similar steps. Amazon has reduced its corporate workforce by about 30,000 employees in recent restructuring efforts, or nearly 10 percent of its white-collar staff.

The Stanford findings land as pressure builds on social media companies from both researchers and the courts. A Los Angeles jury recently ordered YouTube and Instagram to pay $6 million in a case linking platform use to a young woman’s mental health decline.