Here are the 30 minutes to change in your daily life to be happier and healthier

Pick up your phone! Here is a piece of advice that should be familiar to you… We know it: excessive screen time and permanent scrolling are one of the evils of the century. Especially since addiction to social networks and the telephone has peaked with the pandemic, as have anxiety rates. If you need extra motivation to pause social media, the new study published in the Journal of Public Health by the Ruhr University in Bochum in Germany could help you. Researchers report that spending just 30 minutes less on social media per day and replacing that time with physical activity can improve mental health.

Happier, less stressed in just two weeks!

Study participants who followed this routine for just two weeks reported feeling significantly happier, more satisfied, less stressed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and less depressed compared to a control group. Another observation: the effects lasted up to six months after the end of the study. The volunteers naturally continued to reduce their time on social media compared to before – around half an hour among the groups who had either reduced their time spent on social media or increased their level of daily physical activity. This duration increased to about 45 minutes in the group that had combined the two strategies. And they also continued to exercise more (one hour and 39 minutes more per week) than before!

“These measures can be easily implemented”

“It shows us how vital it is to reduce our online presence from time to time and get back to our human roots”concludes an author of the study, Dr Brailovskaia, in a communicated. “These measures can be easily implemented in everyday life and they are completely free – and, at the same time, they help us to stay happy and healthy in the digital age.”