Six-week Facebook break boosts mood, Stanford study finds

A Stanford-led study of about 36,000 Facebook and Instagram users found that a six-week break from Facebook significantly improved emotional well-being—especially for users over 35, undecided voters, and those without a college degree—while Instagram boosts were smaller and not always statistically robust; most of the time freed from scrolling was redirected to other apps, suggesting mood gains came from the platforms themselves rather than from reduced overall screen time.