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 happier 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, researchers asked 467 participants to install an app that blocked all of their internet access for two weeks and found that those who reported a significant incentive to mental health, concentration and well -being.

Participants, whose average age was 32, could still access the internet on their computers at work, home or school – and they were able to board the internet on their phone after the experiment was over – but it seems that This a small change produced massive mass 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 behaviors 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 simple, some people had trouble following.

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 websites, applications and even across the 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 controls, turn off mobile data or turn off WiFi access.

Ward study findings come as a significant number of Americans believe they are dependent on their intelligent phones. 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% believing they could do it 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 the restriction of social media use in just 30 minutes a day led to considerable points of 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 were happier if they would spend a little longer IRL time.

After all, his participants “increased the time spent in the offline world. This is doing hobbies, talking to people face to face, or going out in nature. 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.