A Week Off Social Media Improved Body Image in Young Women

Seven days away from your feeds is a small experiment. A team at York University in Canada ran it as a randomized trial, and the young women who took the break ended the week feeling better about their bodies and about themselves than the women who kept scrolling.

What the researchers did

The study, by Olivia E. Smith, Jennifer S. Mills and Lindsay Samson, was published in Body Image in 2024. It recruited 66 female undergraduate students and randomly assigned each of them to one of two groups: a one-week break from social media, or carrying on with their normal use.

Everyone answered the same questions at the start and again one week later. They measured state self-esteem, how people feel about themselves right now, overall and in three areas (performance, social and appearance), along with body satisfaction. The researchers then compared the two groups at the end of the week, taking each woman's starting scores into account.

What they found

• Body satisfaction. Women who took the break reported higher body satisfaction after the week than women who kept using social media as usual.
• Self-esteem. They also reported higher state self-esteem, overall and in all three areas: performance, social and appearance.
• Who gained most. The benefit for body satisfaction was especially pronounced for women who started with higher thin-ideal internalization, meaning they had taken on a thin body as the ideal to aim for.

The authors describe these as short-term benefits of a one-week break for young women's self-esteem and body image.

What the study can't tell you

It can't say how long the lift lasts. The second measurement came at the end of the break week, so the trial doesn't show what happens once people go back to their usual scrolling.

It can't say whether the results apply to everyone. The sample was small, 66 people, and all of them were female undergraduates at one university, so men, older adults and people outside a university may respond differently.

And the abstract doesn't report the size of the improvements, so this page can't say how many points body satisfaction or self-esteem moved, only that the break group came out ahead on every measure reported. Like most trials of a social media break, the women knew which group they were in, which can shape how people answer.

What it means for your phone

A week away is a short, specific experiment, and this trial suggests it's worth trying, especially if you find yourself measuring your body against the ones in your feed. Plan the week before you start: which apps, which days, and what you'll do instead.

If a full break isn't realistic, a smaller one can still have edges. Unrotten's Time away from apps goal sets a daily schedule that blocks the apps you choose during the hours you pick, so your mornings or evenings stay free of the feed without a fresh decision every day. For a step by step plan for a full week off, read our guide to a social media detox.