Recent research suggests that deactivating a specific feature on your mobile phone might contribute to ‘reversing’ ageing effects.
A Canadian study indicates that altering one aspect of smartphone use can potentially rewind the brain’s age by up to ten years.
Involving 400 participants, the study required individuals to use an app that disabled internet access on their phones.
While the app permitted texting and calls, it blocked internet-dependent functions, including social media platforms.
Over a fortnight, mostly 32-year-old individuals used their smartphones without internet access.
Participants were divided into two groups: the first group used the app for the first two weeks, while the second group accessed the internet for the same period before utilizing the internet-blocking app.
Phone use decreased notably, with the first group’s screen time nearly cut in half.
At the end of the no-internet phase, participants completed a survey to help researchers gauge their wellbeing.
Amazingly, their sustained attention was comparable to someone ten years younger.
Additionally, 90 percent of participants experienced enhancements in mental health, personal well-being, and overall satisfaction.
Researchers from the University of British Columbia remarked: “Despite the many benefits mobile internet offers, reducing the constant connection to the digital world can have large positive effects.”
“Our results provide evidence that blocking mobile internet from smartphones for two weeks can produce significant improvements for [well-being], mental health and the objectively measured ability to sustain attention.
“Even those who did not fully comply with the intervention experienced significant, though more modest, improvements.
“These findings suggest that constant connection to the online world comes at a cost, since psychological functioning improves when this connection is reduced.”
Researchers speculate that these outcomes may be linked to how participants allocated their time during the internet-free period, engaging in various activities rather than phone use.
Future studies may focus on blocking specific apps, such as social media, and exploring if similar effects occur on other electronics like laptops and tablets.
“Concern about how smartphones affect users is widespread: half of American smartphone users—and 80% of those under age 30—worry that they use their device too much, and correlational research suggests that smartphone use is negatively related to mental health and cognitive functioning,” the research team elaborated.
“However, few large-scale experiments have tested for causal effects. We report such an experiment, finding that blocking mobile internet for 2 weeks reduces smartphone use and improves subjective well-being (SWB) (including life satisfaction and positive affect), mental health (more than antidepressants), and sustained attention (as much as being 10 years younger).”