Social Media Research in Washington Post

The teams’s work is featured in a Washington Post story on digital detoxes: “In November, a Harvard study published in JAMA Network Open of nearly 400 people found that even a short break can make a measurable difference: After just one week of reduced smartphone use, participants reported drops in anxiety (16.1 percent), depression (24.8 percent) and insomnia (14.5 percent). Other experiments point in the same direction — whether decreasing social media use by an hour a day for one week or stepping away from just Facebook and Instagram. Growing concern about the effects of social media has led some governments to impose restrictions on young users — Australia, for example, has moved to limit access for children and teens, and similar proposals have surfaced in parts of Europe and the United States.

But John Torous, an associate professor and staff psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the JAMA Network Open study, said the research points to a more nuanced reality: Not everyone is affected in the same way.

A central challenge, he said, is identifying who is most vulnerable — and why.
Over the past decade, Torous added, the evidence has come to resemble a “Goldilocks” problem. “For some people, their use is too much or too little, and for others it’s just right. To identify who is harmed by it is very important,” said Torous, who also directs the digital psychiatry division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Among the groups he and his team are studying are those who are more prone to what scientists have dubbed “social comparison” or judging themselves in relation to others — particularly around appearance — and feel worse as a result; those whose sleep is disrupted; and those who turn to the internet to compensate for a lack of connection in their offline lives.” Read the whole story: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/04/09/social-media-detox