NCT07097545

Change in Social Media Use and Well-being Among College Students Receiving a Two-week Exercise or Mindfulness Intervention

Social Media Use Study

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 300 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The investigators will be randomizing 300 college student participants with high levels of social media use into either a 1) control condition (no intervention), a 2) mindfulness meditation cognitive intervention, or 3) a social media reduction + exercise replacement intervention. Participants complete intervention activities daily for two weeks. The investigators will collect self-report and behavioral measures of social media use and related psychological constructs at three time points: baseline, immediately after the intervention period, and one-week after the intervention period (three weeks from baseline).

Detailed description

The objective of this study is to test two cognitive and behavioral interventions designed to reduce social media use and improve psychological constructs related to social media use in a sample of university students. The cognitive intervention is a mindfulness meditation exercise taken from the Calm app focused around gratitude and stress management. Each meditation takes approximately 15 minutes to complete and is to be done daily for two week. The second behavioral intervention is asking participants to reduce social media use for 30 minutes daily for two weeks and replacing that time with physical exercise of the participants' choosing. Aim 1: Compare psychological constructs related to mental health (well-being, stress, depression, anxiety, loneliness, social comparisons, etc.) before and after conducting two social media use interventions over two weeks, compared to a control condition (no intervention). Aim 2: Compare self-reported and behavioral (smartphone screenshots of social media use screentime) measures of social media use before and after two social media use interventions over two weeks, compared to a control condition (no intervention). Aim 3: Examine mental health and social media use one week after the intervention period is complete (3-week follow up) or testing whether the interventions have effects beyond the intervention period.

Conditions

• Social Media Addiction
• Anxiety
• Depression Disorder
• Wellbeing

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Mindfulness	15 minute daily guided meditation
BEHAVIORAL	Social Media Reduction	Reduce social media use at least 30 minutes daily and exercise instead
BEHAVIORAL	Exercise	Participants will exercise at least 30 minutes daily. Participants are given examples of common exercises (walking, yoga, strength training, etc.), but are allowed to choose any type, although dissuaded from activities with high potential for injury.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-08-24
• Primary completion: 2026-12-01
• Completion: 2027-01-01
• First posted: 2025-07-31
• Last updated: 2025-12-17

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States