ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1548504
Causal Effects of Social Media Use on Self-esteem, Mindfulness, Sleep and Emotional Well-being: A Social Media Restriction Study
Provisionally accepted
Matthias Maerevoet
Marlies Van De Casteele
Eowyn Van De Putte
Dries Debeer
Kristof Hoorelbeke
Maarten Vansteenkiste
Ernst H.W. Koster*- Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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The question whether social media use (SMU) has a causal influence on mental health sparks a lot of interest. Empirical research to date shows no consensus on the causal effects of SMU on mental well-being. Therefore, the present study assessed if experimentally implemented restrictions in SMU led to improvements in well-being outcomes using a combination of selfreport and passive sensing data. After a two week baseline phase, participants (M age = 21.42 years) were randomly assigned to an experimental (N = 35) or a passive control (N = 32) condition. Participants in the experimental condition were asked to limit their SMU to a maximum of 30 minutes (divided across their preferred apps) per day for two consecutive weeks, while participants in the control condition were instructed to continue their SMU as usual. After the intervention phase, participants in both conditions were followed up for two weeks during which all restrictions were removed. During the experiment, we monitored selfesteem, mindfulness, sleep, and emotional well-being. Results indicate a main effect of time for most outcomes, but the implemented SMU restriction did not moderate these effects. In conclusion, this study found no benefits from a temporary social media reduction on mental health outcomes.
Keywords: social media use, social media reduction, self-esteem, Sleep, emotional wellbeing
Received: 20 Dec 2024; Accepted: 30 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Maerevoet, Van De Casteele, Van De Putte, Debeer, Hoorelbeke, Vansteenkiste and Koster. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ernst H.W. Koster, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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