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

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The investigators will be randomizing 150 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 one week. 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.

Detailed Description
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The objective of this study is to test two cognitive and behavioral interventions designed to reduce social media use and psychological constructs related to social media use in a sample of university students. The first cognitive intervention is a mindfulness meditation exercise taken from the Calm app centering around gratitude. Each meditation takes approximately 12 minutes to complete and is to be done daily for one week. The second behavioral intervention is asking participants to reduce social media use for 30 minutes daily for one week 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 a period of one week, compared to a control condition (no intervention). Aim 2: Compare self-reported and behavioral (smartphone screen shots of social media use screen time) measures of social media use before and after two social media use interventions over a period of over one week, compared to a control condition (no intervention). Aim 3: Examine mental health and social media use one week after the intervention period is complete (follow up), examining or testing whether effects last beyond the intervention period.

Official Title
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Comparing Change in Social Media Use and Well-being Among College Students Receiving a One-week Exercise or Mindfulness Intervention

Conditions
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Social Media Addiction, Depression, Anxiety, Well-Being, Psychological

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Mindfulness
* Behavioral: Social Media Reduction + Exercise


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: The participant is 18 or older. The participant must be a Johns Hopkins University student. Owning an iPhone or Android smartphone, with frequent use of social media use daily (> 1 hour) Enabling and sharing screenshots of your smartphone use metrics, including number of last-week pickups, notifications received, and average screen time. Providing consent to participate. Only exercising 1 hour or less daily, on average. Exclusion Criteria: younger than 18 Not a Johns Hopkins University Student Doesn't own a smart phone Uses smartphone less than 1 hour daily Exercises more than 1 hour daily

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Treatment
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: Three groups of 1) no intervention, 2) mindfulness, or 3) social media reduction + exercise replacement intervention arms
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| No Intervention: Control<br>Participants will not receive an intervention. They will receive instructions to use their social media use as usual. | |
| Experimental: Mindfulness<br>Approximately 12-minute mindfulness-style meditations will be completed daily for one week through the Calm platform. Participants can listen to the exercise on the web-enabled version of Calm, or through the smartphone app. The course is entitled 7 Days of Gratitude and centers around noticing and appreciating things in daily life. | Behavioral: Mindfulness<br>* 12 minute daily guided meditation<br>|
| Experimental: Social Media Reduction + Exercise<br>Participants will reduce their social media use by at least 30 minutes daily for one week. Simultaneously, participants will exercise at least 30 minutes daily. Participants are given examples of common exercises (walking, yoga, strength training, etc.), but they are allowed to choose any type, although they are dissuaded from activities with high potential for injury. | Behavioral: Social Media Reduction + Exercise<br>* Reduce social media use at least 30 minutes daily and exercise instead<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 (DASS-21) | Score range = 0-63, higher score = worse outcome | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQoL-BREF) scale | Score range = 13-65, lower score = worse outcome | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in Smartphone screen time (minutes) for social media use | Past-week amount of screen time for social media use | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in Number of Social media use smartphone pick-ups | Past-week total number of smartphone pick-ups for social media use applications | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in Percent of time using social media | Past-week percent of time using social media compared to other smartphone application categories. | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in Social media use notifications received | Past-week total number of notifications received for social media use applications | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Change in University of California, Los Angeles 3-Item Loneliness Scale | Score range = 3-9, higher score = worse outcome | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in The Gratitude Questionnaire, 6-item form (GQ-6) scale | Score range = 6-42, lower score = worse outcome | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in Motivations for Electronic Interaction Scale (MEIS) | Score range = 10-50, higher score = worse outcome | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in Comprehensive Assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Processes (CompACT-15) scale | Score range = 0-138, lower scores = worse outcome | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) | Score range = 6-35, higher score = worse outcome | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in Fear of Missing Out Scale | Score range = 10-50, higher score = worse outcome | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in Hours spent socializing in-person with peers | Score range = 0-20+ hours of in-person socialization, lower scores = worse outcomes | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week | 
| Change in Number of evenings of past-week recreation | Score range = 0-7 evenings of recreation, lower scores = worse outcomes | baseline, immediately post intervention, post intervention up to one week |