• A group of researchers studied participants who elected to block their own internet access for two weeks as part of a study.
• Overall, participants were less anxious, less depressed and even slept better.
• Those who experience FOMO and ADHD saw the biggest improvement from disconnecting.

The world wide web has become something different from what CERN launched 32 years ago. Today the internet tends to be an awful place thanks to the false sense of security folks feel when they can be anonymous.

Studies show time and time again how social media use is linked to depression but what if it’s not just social media? What if having instant access to every morsel of information at anytime you want it is making us all just a bit sadder?

To investigate this, a group of researchers studied the effects of no internet access on 467 participants in the US and Canada. The participants were told to download an app that locked both WiFi and mobile internet connectivity for a period of two weeks. Participants could still make calls and send text messages. The group was mainly comprised of women (63 percent) with an average age of 32 years old. Participants also had a willingness to reduce their smartphone usage.

The goal here was to see whether participants had a better mental wellbeing, were more attentive and other psychological functions.

The participants were put into one of two groups. The Intervention Group had access immediately blocked for two weeks after one week of access. The Delayed Intervention Group could continue using the internet for those weeks but were then blocked from access while the Intervention Group regained access.

The study found that participants in both groups had improvements in subjective well-being and mental health during the first two weeks when their internet was blocked. Participants noted a decreased feeling of anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges while reporting increased positive emotions and life satisfaction. The participants even reported that they were sleeping better.

Both groups also showed improvements in attention spans.

As to why there are these improvements, there is a simple explanation – when you have no internet access, you have to find other ways to entertain yourself. The researchers found that participants spent their time socialising, exercising, spending time in nature, doing hobbies and maintaining offline relationships.

Two groups that experienced the biggest benefit from disconnecting were those with a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and folks who suffer from ADHD who showed large improvements in their mental well being but not necessarily their attention span.

The study is limited, the researchers admit as much, but it opens the door for more studies into into how internet access affects us and watch exactly it is that is making us all so damn sad.

We highly recommend reading Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being over on PNAS Nexus for free here.