Change in Social Media Use and Well-being Among College Students Receiving a One-week Exercise or Mindfulness Intervention

Comparing Change in Social Media Use and Well-being Among College Students Receiving a One-week Exercise or Mindfulness Intervention

The investigators will be randomizing 150 college student participants with high levels of social media use into either a 1) control condition (no intervention), a 2) mindfulness meditation cognitive intervention, or 3) a social media reduction + exercise replacement intervention. Participants complete intervention activities daily for one week. The investigators will collect self-report and behavioral measures of social media use and related psychological constructs at three time points: baseline, immediately after the intervention period, and one-week after the intervention period.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Depression, Anxiety; Social Media Addiction; Well-Being, Psychological
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Mindfulness; Behavioral: Social Media Reduction + Exercise

Detailed Description

The objective of this study is to test two cognitive and behavioral interventions designed to reduce social media use and psychological constructs related to social media use in a sample of university students.

The first cognitive intervention is a mindfulness meditation exercise taken from the Calm app centering around gratitude. Each meditation takes approximately 12 minutes to complete and is to be done daily for one week. The second behavioral intervention is asking participants to reduce social media use for 30 minutes daily for one week and replacing that time with physical exercise of the participants' choosing.

Aim 1: Compare psychological constructs related to mental health (well-being, stress, depression, anxiety, loneliness, social comparisons, etc.) before and after conducting two social media use interventions over a period of one week, compared to a control condition (no intervention).

Aim 2: Compare self-reported and behavioral (smartphone screen shots of social media use screen time) measures of social media use before and after two social media use interventions over a period of over one week, compared to a control condition (no intervention).

Aim 3: Examine mental health and social media use one week after the intervention period is complete (follow up), examining or testing whether effects last beyond the intervention period.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 140
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Maryland
    • Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21218
      • Johns Hopkins University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• The participant is 18 or older.
• The participant must be a Johns Hopkins University student.
• Owning an iPhone or Android smartphone, with frequent use of social media use daily (> 1 hour)
• Enabling and sharing screenshots of your smartphone use metrics, including number of last-week pickups, notifications received, and average screen time.
• Providing consent to participate.
• Only exercising 1 hour or less daily, on average.

Exclusion Criteria:

• younger than 18
• Not a Johns Hopkins University Student
• Doesn't own a smart phone
• Uses smartphone less than 1 hour daily
• Exercises more than 1 hour daily

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; Participants will not receive an intervention. They will receive instructions to use their social media use as usual.
Experimental: Mindfulness; Approximately 12-minute mindfulness-style meditations will be completed daily for one week through the Calm platform. Participants can listen to the exercise on the web-enabled version of Calm, or through the smartphone app. The course is entitled "7 Days of Gratitude" and centers around noticing and appreciating things in daily life.	Behavioral: Mindfulness; 12 minute daily guided meditation
Experimental: Social Media Reduction + Exercise; Participants will reduce their social media use by at least 30 minutes daily for one week. Simultaneously, participants will exercise at least 30 minutes daily. Participants are given examples of common exercises (walking, yoga, strength training, etc.), but they are allowed to choose any type, although they are dissuaded from activities with high potential for injury.	Behavioral: Social Media Reduction + Exercise; Reduce social media use at least 30 minutes daily and exercise instead

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 (DASS-21)	Score range = 0-63, higher score = worse outcome	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQoL-BREF) scale	Score range = 13-65, lower score = worse outcome	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in Smartphone screen time (minutes) for social media use	Past-week amount of screen time for social media use	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in Number of Social media use smartphone pick-ups	Past-week total number of smartphone pick-ups for social media use applications	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in Percent of time using social media	Past-week percent of time using social media compared to other smartphone application categories.	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in Social media use notifications received	Past-week total number of notifications received for social media use applications	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in University of California, Los Angeles 3-Item Loneliness Scale	Score range = 3-9, higher score = worse outcome	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in The Gratitude Questionnaire, 6-item form (GQ-6) scale	Score range = 6-42, lower score = worse outcome	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in Motivations for Electronic Interaction Scale (MEIS)	Score range = 10-50, higher score = worse outcome	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in Comprehensive Assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Processes (CompACT-15) scale	Score range = 0-138, lower scores = worse outcome	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS)	Score range = 6-35, higher score = worse outcome	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in Fear of Missing Out Scale	Score range = 10-50, higher score = worse outcome	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in Hours spent socializing in-person with peers	Score range = 0-20+ hours of in-person socialization, lower scores = worse outcomes	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week
Change in Number of evenings of past-week recreation	Score range = 0-7 evenings of recreation, lower scores = worse outcomes	baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Johannes Thrul, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Hanley SM, Watt SE, Coventry W. Taking a break: The effect of taking a vacation from Facebook and Instagram on subjective well-being. PLoS One. 2019 Jun 6;14(6):e0217743. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217743. eCollection 2019.
• Hou, Y., Xiong, D., Jiang, T., Song, L., & Wang, Q. (2019). Social media addiction: Its impact, mediation, and intervention. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 13(1), article 4.
• Hunt, M. G., Marx, R., Lipson, C., & Young, J. (2018). No more FOMO: Limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37(10), 751-768.
• Lambert J, Barnstable G, Minter E, Cooper J, McEwan D. Taking a One-Week Break from Social Media Improves Well-Being, Depression, and Anxiety: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2022 May;25(5):287-293. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2021.0324. Epub 2022 May 3.
• Roberts TA, Daniels EA, Weaver JM, Zanovitch LS. "Intermission!" A short-term social media fast reduces self-objectification among pre-teen and teen dancers. Body Image. 2022 Dec;43:125-133. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.08.015. Epub 2022 Sep 21.
• van Wezel MMC, Abrahamse EL, Vanden Abeele MMP. Does a 7-day restriction on the use of social media improve cognitive functioning and emotional well-being? Results from a randomized controlled trial. Addict Behav Rep. 2021 Jun 15;14:100365. doi: 10.1016/j.abrep.2021.100365. eCollection 2021 Dec.
• Nicuță, E.G., Constantin, T. Take Nothing for Granted: Downward Social Comparison and Counterfactual Thinking Increase Adolescents' State Gratitude for the Little Things in Life. J Happiness Stud 22, 3543-3570 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-021-00382-5.
• Hall, J.A., Xing, C., Ross. E.M., Johnson, R.M. Experimentally manipulating social media abstinence: results of a four-week diary study. Media Psychology, 2019; 24, 259 - 275
• Vanman EJ, Baker R, Tobin SJ. The burden of online friends: the effects of giving up Facebook on stress and well-being. J Soc Psychol. 2018;158(4):496-507. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2018.1453467. Epub 2018 Apr 9.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 7, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 11, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): December 11, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 14, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 16, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): November 22, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 31, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 27, 2025
• Last Verified: May 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Technology Addiction; Behavior, Addictive; Compulsive Behavior; Impulsive Behavior; Internet Addiction Disorder
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB00025926

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: We will discuss as a team the how to share individual participant data with other researchers in a confidential manner.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No