Just by turning off one feature on your smartphone, your brain can become 10 years younger.

In a study of 400 people, including students and working adults, scientists asked them to install an application that blocked internet access on their smartphones. However, they could still make calls and send text messages normally.

Before and after participating in the study, these people completed surveys to assess brain function and mental health status.

Positive impacts of temporary internet disconnection

Results showed that sustained attention, that is, the ability to maintain attention on a particular subject, improved significantly, equivalent to the concentration level of someone 10 years younger.

Additionally, 90% of participants reported significant improvements in their mental health, even better than would be expected with antidepressant use over the same 2-week period. They also reported significant increases in life satisfaction and personal well-being.

According to researchers, this positive change may come from people spending less time surfing the internet and instead focusing more on real-life activities such as meeting friends, being physically active and being in nature.

Research design and the numbers speak for themselves

Statistics from the study showed that during the trial period, daily screen time was nearly halved, from 5 hours and 14 minutes to 2 hours and 41 minutes in one group of participants.

“Despite the many benefits of mobile internet, temporarily disconnecting from the digital world can have huge positive effects,” concluded a team of researchers from the University of British Columbia.

“The results of the study provide evidence that taking a two-week break from mobile internet access can lead to significant improvements in mental health and attention span, as measured by objective measures,” they stressed.

Even those who did not fully comply with the intervention still reported significant, albeit more modest, improvements.

Research also shows that being constantly connected to the online world doesn't come free, as the price we pay is a decline in our mental functioning.

In a study published in the American scientific journal PNAS Nexus, scientists recruited participants from the United States and Canada through an online platform. The average age of the group was 32, with 63% being female, 29% being students, and 42% working full-time.

Over the course of a month, these people completed three surveys, each two weeks apart, to assess their cognition, attention, and mental health over time.

They were divided into two groups, the first group installed the Freedom App, a tool that completely blocks internet access on the phone, and used it for the first two weeks. Meanwhile, the second group continued to use their phones as usual during this period and only started blocking the internet in the last two weeks.

The analysis focused on three factors, including the ability to maintain focus, mental state, and subjective well-being. Of the 467 participants, 266 actually downloaded and installed the app, and of those, 119 seriously blocked the internet for at least 10 of the 14 days of the experiment.

Notably, in the group that blocked the Internet from the beginning, phone usage time dropped sharply, from an average of 314 minutes per day to 161 minutes, almost halving.

Over the next two weeks, when participants were allowed to access the internet again, their average phone usage increased to 265 minutes per day. However, this was still about 15% lower than before they started the experiment.

In the remaining group, those who had not had their Internet blocked in the initial phase, their phone usage time decreased slightly, from 336 minutes to 322 minutes per day in the first two weeks.

But the significant change only came when they started using the Internet blocking application, with usage time dropping sharply to 190 minutes/day, equivalent to a 41% reduction compared to the previous period.

Global concerns and future directions

Smartphone addiction is becoming a major concern in the US, where 90% of adults own a device and spend an average of 4 hours and 35 minutes a day using it.

Remarkably, nearly half of Americans, and 80% of those under 30, admit to worrying about how much they use their phones. Many young people say that being constantly online makes it difficult for them to build real relationships and stay connected with family.

This concern is also spreading to schools, where many students are still growing up. To date, at least nine US states, including California, Florida and Ohio, have banned the use of phones in the classroom.

In the UK, when calls were made to ban smartphones in schools last February, teachers reported a marked improvement in student performance and behaviour.

Researchers warn that humans have evolved in a world where information and social interaction are scarce. Constant stimulation from the internet, where everything is fast, plentiful and easily accessible, may be eroding our ability to self-regulate our thoughts and behavior.

While the intervention in this study was a “complete cut-off” of internet access, the team said they would like to test more flexible solutions in the future, such as limiting only highly addictive apps like social media. They also want to expand the scope to see if reducing the use of other devices like tablets or laptops would have the same effect.

The study had some limitations, however, notably that the sample consisted mainly of people who were already motivated to limit their smartphone use. Still, the study attracted significant funding from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the region’s largest philanthropic foundation.

Notably, Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook is the fund's largest donor, with a total donation of $1.75 billion in 2010 and an additional $200 million in 2018.