Everyone I know who has deleted their social media has seen their life dramatically improve within three to six months (or, as a friend of mine corrected me, “Try three to six days.”). Once they get through the detox period, the cravings for dopamine subside, and the phantom buzzes vanish, people consistently find that their anxiety lessens, their mental capacity increases, their relationships strengthen, and their overall quality of life is better. I don’t know a single person who has deleted their social media and concluded that their life is worse because of it.
All you have to do is read The Anxious Generation to see that the data regarding how social media negatively affects us is crystal clear. Just to pull one stat of many, since 2010, anxiety has risen by 52% in people ages 35–49, 103% among ages 26–34, and a staggering 139% among ages 18–25. Haidt makes the definitive case in The Anxious Generation that this increase, along with many other equally shocking statistics, is due to social media — the fountainhead of our mental health epidemic.
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