Participants were measurably happier and less anxious.
But, disappointingly, not by a huge margin:
Perhaps this is due to the fact a significant number of users switched to less harmful online platforms and didn’t stop using their phones.
Or perhaps there is actually something more sinister. My real concern with this study is the involvement of Meta.
We actually have evidence that Meta halted internal research about social media:
Would you study tobacco and have tobacco companies involved?
Would you study obesity and have Coca-Cola involved?
I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but could Meta actually bully/bribe Stanford in order to change the figures?
Why wouldn’t they? We all took ourselves offline. What other content would be left for them to be exposed to?
Not engaging will also impact the algorithm since it’s feeding off attention to sell advertising. If we all refuse to engage that will weigh it heavily towards the views of people left online who are spreading a different opinion which is to spread and engage with the online world. That’s how they get their information across.