Changing this smartphone quality in just two weeks significantly improves health and well -being

Forget the new radical diet or hard fitness regimen – the key to being happy and healthier can be in the palm of your hand.

People spend on average three to five hours on smartphones daily, with younger adults reporting use closer to six to seven hours. Research has shown that all that will move Doom and Instagram Envy are making us miserable.

The good news is that you don’t have to give up these pages forever to feel better. In a new study, the researchers asked 467 participants to install an app that blocked all of their internet access for two weeks and found that those who reported an implicit incentive on mental health, concentration and well -being.

Participants, whose average age was 32, could still access their computer at work, home or school results.

Almost three -quarters of the participants (71%) reported better mental health, with the average improvement of depression symptoms even greater than those seen in research on antidepressants.

And with the spotlight, the researchers noted that the mass seemed to return 10 years of cognitive decline in aging.

“Intelligent phones have drastically changed our lives and behavior over the past 15 years, but our basic human psychology remains the same,” said Adrian Ward, a marketing professor at the University of Texas McCombs Business School and the author of the governing study.

“Our big question was, are we adapted to deal with constant links with everything all the time? The data suggests we are not.”

Although the directions of the experiment were simply, some people had problems to follow.

Of the 467 who were committed to blocking the mobile internet for two weeks, only 266 raised the freedom app and only 119 kept the active block for at least 10 days.

Freedom allows users to block distinctive website, apps and even the entire internet as long as they want.

It is on the App Store, Google Play or the Liria Download site, with a monthly reconciliation available for $ 8.99.

There is also a free DIY option – smartphone users can activate parent checks, turn off mobile data or turn off WiFi access.

Ward study findings come as a significant number of Americans believe that they are added to smartphones. In a 2022 Gallup survey, 58% of Americans admitted that they are too much on their phones. The figure was closer to 80% for those under 30 years of age.

And yet, a 2018 study found that when asked how long they could go without smartphones, only 17% of respondents said they could last a full day, with 31% believe they could do it only a few hours and 8% admitting that they ‘d crack after an hour or less.

Meanwhile, scientific studies support the reduction of phone use. Research from the University of Pennsylvania found that limiting social media use in just 30 minutes a day led to signing anxiety, depression and solitude.

Another study, in the American newspaper of preventive medicine, linked the use of heavy social media to a double risk of perceived social isolation.

Ward believes the results of his study, published Tuesday in Pnas Nexus, Suggest that people happen if IRL would spend a little more time.

After all, his participants “increased the time spent in the offline world. This is a hobby, talking to people face to face, or going out naturally. They took more sleep, felt more socially connected, and felt more in control of their decisions. “

Now, isn’t that sound blowing? It may be time to get a flip phone.