Feeling stressed and overworked can make you less dedicated to your job and impact your performance. Many companies recognize this issue and invest in professionals to take care of their employees’ mental health. However, there’s a simpler and more cost-effective solution to boost satisfaction and efficiency.

Research from Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum found that cutting down on social media use by just 30 minutes per day improved participants’ mental health, job satisfaction, and commitment.

A major factor

Social media is a big part of many people’s lives, not just the younger generation. Different studies have looked into the effects of heavy social media use. Some say it boosts mood, while others find it negatively affects mental health and triggers a fear of missing out (FoMO) when users are offline.

“We suspect that people tend to use social networks to generate positive emotions that they’re missing in their everyday working lives, especially when they are feeling overworked,” the researchers explain. “In addition, some platforms such as LinkedIn also offer the opportunity to look for new jobs if you’re unhappy with your current role.” In the short-term, escaping from reality into the world of social networks may indeed improve your mood; but in the long-term, it can lead to addictive behavior that has the opposite effect.

The team conducted an experiment to investigate these connections, involving a total of 166 participants who worked either part-time or full-time across various sectors, spending a minimum of 35 minutes daily on non-work-related social media activities. Participants were randomly divided into two groups. One group maintained their usual social media habits.

Reduced exposure

The other group reduced their daily social media time by 30 minutes for a week. Participants completed several online questionnaires before the experiment, the day after it started, and one week later. These questionnaires covered details about their workload, job satisfaction, commitment, mental health, stress levels, Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), and signs of addictive social media use.

“Even after this short period of time, we found that the group that spent 30 minutes less a day on social media significantly improved their job satisfaction and mental health,” the researchers continue. “The participants in this group felt less overworked and were more committed on the job than the control group.”

The participants also experienced a reduction in their Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), and these effects persisted for at least a week after the experiment ended. In some cases, the positive impacts even increased during this period. Those who voluntarily cut down on their daily social media use continued to do so even beyond the one-week mark.

The researchers believe that by decreasing their social media time, participants had more time to focus on their work, leading to a decreased sense of being overworked and experiencing less divided attention.

“Our brains can’t cope well with constant distraction from a task,” they conclude. “People who frequently stop what they’re doing in order to catch up on their social media feed find it more difficult to focus on their work and they achieve poorer results.”