this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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When You Block the Internet on Your Phone, Something Astonishing Happens Mentally (futurism.com)
submitted 1 day ago by whydudothatdrcrane@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world
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A specialized iPhone app was used to block internet access, recording any time that the feature was disabled.

In numbers, nearly all the participants — 91 percent — improved on at least one of the three outcomes, while around three-quarters reported better mental health by the end.

The findings even suggest that the intervention had a stronger effect on depression symptoms than antidepressants, and was roughly on par with cognitive behavioral therapy.

What's driving all this? Ward suggests that the simplest explanation is that the experiment forced participants to spend more time doing fulfilling things in the real world.

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[–] Integrate777 25 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

I bet it's not about the internet, just the social media apps. Why not just uninstall the apps or tell the participants not to use them?

[–] leftover@lemm.ee 5 points 3 hours ago

I agree. I’m on lemmy because Reddit wouldn’t allow me to control what I was seeing. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air not it being continually bombarded by DT this and DT that. It has me thinking maybe I just dump the social media apps all together.

[–] Baggie@lemmy.zip 4 points 6 hours ago

I did something similar to what this article describes a bit back. For me it was turning off my phone, the effect was staggering. Anxiety etc dropped immediately.

For me in particular, it was being constantly available to anyone in my life, but also the doom scrolling, and knowing there's a vast ocean of infinite content at my fingertips. Sure, I could curate my experience, and block people, but overall the phone is still functioning largely the same as it ever does. I can always turn those features back on. By changing how the device works externally, you're disconnecting those people from the decade and a half of reinforcement and whatever they have associated with their phones.

To get similar results I was able to just turn off my phone, but that might vary for some. Anyway, it seems reasonable for the experiment at least.