Four months ago, the M-A Chronicle conducted a two-week social media detox with four students: Daniel Matloub, Atessa Gholamy, Jose Guzman, and Penelope Chapman. We did so in response to rising concerns about teens’ intense social media use and its detrimental effects on mental health, including excessive stress, comparison, and loneliness. While students initially experienced withdrawal habits and fear of disconnection, these feelings faded quickly, leading to stronger real-life relationships, improved habits, and a greater appreciation for time spent offline.
Now, three months later, we’ve checked in with our four participants to better understand the long-term effects of a two-week social media cleanse. While they have gradually returned to some of their previous screen time habits, they’ve also maintained a stronger sense of awareness, improved self-control, and more intentional relationships with social media. Let’s take a closer look.
Daniel Matloub
Senior Daniel Matloub joined the detox to break his dependence on social media and ultimately improved his focus, productivity, habits, and real-life connections.
Three months later, Matloub has largely returned to his previous screen time levels. “I think that it’s definitely regressed to a point that it was before. I would say that after the detox I was in a position where I was using [social media] a lot less. I was probably an hour down where I was before the detox. But then, as time has gone on, as weekends have passed, as months have passed, I’ve definitely gotten back to the same amount of screen time I had before,” he said.
However, Matlloub has maintained many of the habits he built during the detox. He reads regularly and is generally more focused on homework. “Reading is the biggest habit that has stuck,” he said.
Matloub has also remained less stressed, something he gained during the cleanse period.
“During the experiment, I found a little bit of inner peace, and since then I’ve almost retained that inner peace to an extent where on average I’m more peaceful, but things that I see on social media do disrupt that peace every once and a while,” he explained.
Matloub’s biggest takeaway from the detox was a heightened awareness of how much time he spends on social media. “I actively am looking at how much time I am spending on social media and I’m able to see that right now it’s an unhealthy amount,” he said. “I just am kinda missing the motivation I had during the detox to stay off of it.”
“I didn’t expect that to stick,” he added. “I definitely thought I would go back to this point of mindlessly scrolling. I’m not mindlessly scrolling now, I’m just scrolling.”
When asked if he would participate in another social media detox, Matloub replied, “Absolutely.” He noted that he frequently thinks about doing it again, especially during high-stress periods like finals and AP testing. “I think the strongest long-term impact is the desire to do the detox again, which I feel regularly and didn’t expect I would feel,” he said. “I just need the motivation to do it.”
“If I could redesign [the challenge], I would probably make it so that it isn’t about spending less time on social media and more about replacing the time on social media with other healthy habits,” Matloub concluded.
Atessa Gholamay
Junior Atessa Gholamy took on the detox to reduce her lengthy screen time and ultimately described an increase in her productivity and feeling less reliant on social media.
Looking back, Gholamy believes she has improved her self-control and overall mindset regarding social media use. “I think it’s definitely a lot better than it was before, and I think I’m more mindful and more in control of my decisions,” she said. “It was honestly not that huge or difficult an experience. The weeks went by quickly and I don’t think the harder times outweighed the benefits I got at all.”
Gholamy has maintained her habit of turning to longer-form entertainment instead of social media. “I definitely watch a lot more Netflix and longer-length entertainment and I still play games instead of being on social media. I am back [on social media], but I feel a lot more in control. I know I can delete it if I need to and that it will be okay,” she said.
Her stress levels have remained largely unchanged. “I think right now I wouldn’t say social media impacts the stress I have,” she said. “I think if anything, they might have risen a little, but I don’t think that it is very related to social media or anything—I think it’s more situational.”
Like Matloub, Gholamy has become increasingly aware of the time she spends on social media. “It makes me a lot more conscious of where I spend my time now,” she said.
While she would participate in another detox, Gholamy said she would extend it to allow habits to fully develop. “I think I would make it for longer than two weeks, maybe like three weeks or a month,” she said. “The first week you’re dealing with no social media, then the second week you start to form habits. I think with another few weeks those habits would have time to stick and continue.
Overall, Gholamy uses social media more intentionally and in moderation. “I’ve been on it very on and off. I’ll delete TikTok or Instagram during the week and sometimes over breaks or during busy weekends I will redownload it,” she said. “I think I’m a lot more in control of whether or not I’m on it.”
Jose Guzman
Junior Jose Guzman participated in the detox because of growing concerns about how much social media was consuming his daily life. Now, he still uses it, but views it as less essential. “I feel like [my use] is kinda lukewarm. I don’t really need social media anymore, it’s just an app on my phone,” he said. “I mostly just use Instagram just to communicate with others but I don’t really watch videos as much as I did before.”
“There will be days where I won’t be on Instagram, like I feel like I don’t need to, but some [habits] did come back, like going on TikTok for no reason if I’m bored. If I don’t want to do homework, I go on TikTok, but then I snap back into it and I continue back on homework,” he explained.
Guzman’s stress levels have been influenced more by exposure to news than by social media itself. “The only reason why is not because of social media but because of news because social media brings more news,” he said. “There’s a lot of things going on in the world, so social media just shows me more of what happened.”
Guzman has also become more aware of his habits, regularly checking and trying to adjust his screen time. “Now, like once a week, I always check [my screen time] and I realize how high it is, and then when I see how high it is, I bring it down,” he said.
Guzman, like the other participants, said he would participate in another detox and described the experience positively. “It was great. I felt like a new life and it was really fun,” he said.
“What impacted me the most was how long I can go without social media because I didn’t download TikTok or Instagram until last month, so I can really go a long time without social media and it doesn’t really bother me. It doesn’t impact my life as much as I thought it was,” Guzman concluded.
Penelope Chapman
Senior Penelope Chapman was interested in the social media detox as a way to improve her mental well-being and to see if stepping away would ease her anxiety.
“I think at the beginning it was pretty difficult. It’s hard to adjust to something like that, especially when most young people spend a lot of time on their phones. But as I eased into it, it got easier and I picked up other hobbies and then it wasn’t as much of a pain or just kinda like a mental habit,” Chapman said.
Chapman explained her habits didn’t change drastically, but she feels less compelled to constantly check her phone and has taken small steps to manage her usage. “I unfortunately wouldn’t say that it changed drastically after my detox, but I would say it feels slightly less compulsory to check my phone and check social media,” she said. “I also turned notifications off for TikTok and Instagram to try to help a little bit.”
Chapman has also maintained her habit of reading. “With senior year I’ve been trying to pick it up. That habit that I started in December definitely followed through,” she said. “I try to read before bed most nights.”
While her stress levels are influenced by other factors in her life, she has noticed an overall decrease. “There’s just different things in general going on in my life right now, so I don’t know if I can attribute it to no social media or social media, but in general, I am less stressed,” Chapman explained.
Similar to Matloub, Gholamy, and Guzman, Chapman has become more aware of her screen time. “I did not check my daily screen time before the detox, but now I find myself checking it and make myself take accountability if I feel like I’ve spent too much time,” she said.
Chapman said the detox pushed her to take a step back and be more critical of what she consumes. “I’ve always kind of known [social media to be] superficial and very curated, but it’s just kind of made me take an even further step back as to how I view everything I’m consuming and just who I’m following in general,” she said. “It’s just another thing to mentally note.”
Finally, Chapman would redesign the detox by removing phone use entirely. “You would really notice a drastic difference,” she said.
While each student experienced different challenges and benefits, many found increased awareness and an overall healthier relationship with their devices. Breaks from social media, whether small or large, help foster a recognition of how much time we truly spend on our phones and what we could be doing instead.
