To improve your mental health, well-being and concentration, you have to block the smartphone’s internet connection for 15 days.
“Smartphones have radically changed our lives and behaviors in the past 15 years, but our basic human psychology remains the same”notes Professor Adrian Ward Texas McCOMBS. “Our big question was: are we suitable for managing a constant connection to everything, all the time? The data suggest that this is not the case.”
His work, published in PNAS Nexusshow that people who disconnected their internet phone for two weeks, displayed better mental health as well as a more important capacity for well-being.
Mobile Internet blocking: mental health and well-being are boosted
For this study, an interdisciplinary team made up of researchers from several American universities brought together 467 old participants on average of 32 years. These were invited to install an application on their smartphone that can block any Internet access, including browsers and social networks. Thus, only calls and SMS could make.
“Participants could always access the Internet via computers at home, work and school, but they were no longer constantly connected to the online world”specify the authors in their press release.
To assess the effects of “disconnection”, volunteers were divided into two groups. The first cut the internet on the phone the first two weeks of the experience, then recovered it the last two. The other group was the opposite. During the 4 weeks of experience, all volunteers passed tests and answered questionnaires.
Result: the blocking of the mobile internet for two weeks led to significant improvements in mental health, subjective well-being and attention. For example, 71 % of participants said they had better mental health after the “disconnection” than before. The average degree of improvement in depression symptoms was higher than that reported in several studies on antidepressant drugs, add scientists. In addition, the gain in attention of attention was equivalent to “A reversal of 10 years of cognitive age -related cognitive “.
The data also shows that the benefits of the blocking of the mobile internet increase with the duration of the disconnection.
Disconnecting the smartphone: a beneficial effect on lifestyle
For researchers, the benefits of blocking the Internet on the phone would be largely explained by the modification of the habits of the participants. Professor Adrian Ward Note: “Rather than watching more television or movies, they have spent more time in the offline world. It consists in practicing leisure, talking to people opposite or going out in nature. They have Dormant more, felt more socially connected and had the impression of better controlling their own decisions. “
These activities, acclaimed during the period “Internet mobile off”, have indeed been linked to an improvement in mental health and well-being in many scientific works in recent years.
