About This Project

The large amount of time people spend on social media is a growing cause for concern among health professions. Social media use can be considered problematic when it interferes with an individual's work, school, sleep, or relationships. Despite the abundance of apps designed to block access to user-specified sites, little research has been conducted. The primary purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a commercially available application at reducing social media use.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

In 2019, the average social media user logged 144 minutes on social media platforms daily (Global Web Index, 2020). The increasing time people spend on social media sites is an issue of increasing concern to health professions (Willoughby, 2018). For some individuals, social media use can become problematic. Social media use is considered problematic when it interferes with aspects of an individual's life such as work, school, sleep, or relationships (Chahal et al., 2012, Owusu-Acheaw & Larson, 2015, Woods & Scott, 2016, Zivnuska et al., 2019). A 2018 Pew Study found that young adults have more social media accounts across more platforms than other age groups, and access them more frequently (Pew Research Center, 2018).

What is the significance of this project?

A plethora of computer and mobile apps have been developed to block access to user-specified websites and programs, yet little research on their effectiveness has been conducted. Whether or not these applications are effective at reducing time spent on social media is still unknown, as well as whether individuals will continue to use the applications once downloaded or even find them acceptable to use. Having experimental data to show whether or not these apps are effective at treating problematic social media use is an extremely important step forward for both clinicians' and the general population's handling of this behavioral issue.

What are the goals of the project?

The primary goals of this project are to determine the effectiveness, acceptability, and adherence of a widely available app to reduce social media use. We'll determine the effectiveness by measuring time spent on social media and comparing it across phases. We'll use a reversal design (Kazdin, 2012), which involves a baseline phase where we just monitor social media use without intervening, followed by treatment implementation. To ensure that it was our treatment that was effective and not some random variable that influenced the participant's social media use, we'll replicate both phases. We'll assess adherence by checking the session history of the application to determine if the participants actually used the app as scheduled or shut off the "blocking" sessions.