Participants were measurably happier and less anxious.
But, disappointingly, not by a huge margin:
Perhaps this is due to the fact a significant number of users switched to less harmful online platforms and didn’t stop using their phones.
Or perhaps there is actually something more sinister. My real concern with this study is the involvement of Meta.
We actually have evidence that Meta halted internal research about social media:
Would you study tobacco and have tobacco companies involved?
Would you study obesity and have Coca-Cola involved?
I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but could Meta actually bully/bribe Stanford in order to change the figures?
Leechblock and unhook are required browser extensions for me.
YouTuber is extra tricky because I can easily convince myself that I’m not wasting time, I’m “learning”. Even though I doubt I’ll ever need to know how to build a mud hut with a secret swimming pool underneath…
In general, I found if I remove the addictive elements from YouTube or whatever, as opposed to blocking the website entirely, I’m more likely to stick to being sober. I treat my phone the same way, I use YAM Launcher to help remove distractions.