The Brief

If you have ever sworn off social media for a week or two because you sensed it was feeding your anxiety or dampening your mood, you may be on to something.

A new study out last week in JAMA Network Open found that cutting down on social media use even for a week can significantly reduce mental health symptoms in young adults.

It's part of a growing body of research that shows that taking breaks from scrolling and posting can be a mental health boon, especially for young people.

For example, a recently published meta-analysis found that limiting social media is tied to a statistically significant boost in "subjective well-being."

Unreliable data vs. an objective measure

Most studies on the impacts of social media ask users to recall how much time they spend on their phones or these platforms, as well as other aspects of their health like mood and sleep. But that data is often unreliable, says psychiatrist John Torous, director of the Division of Digital Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and author of the new study.

"If you ask me, 'How much have you slept in the past week, and can you guess your screen time?" says Torous, "I don't think I would be right."

In the new study, Torus and his colleagues tried to get a more objective measure of social media use. They recruited 373 young adults ages 18 to 24. For the first two weeks, participants used social media like they normally would and allowed researchers to record information from their phones about their social media use, their step counts and their sleep. They had participants download an app that sent the data directly to the researchers.

2 weeks of observation, 1 week of detox

During the first two weeks of the study, the app gave Torous and his colleagues baseline data. At the end of those two weeks, the researchers shared that data with participants and gave them standardized questionnaires for symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia and loneliness. Then, they asked whether they wanted to try a weeklong social media detox.

"We had 80% of participants opt into the detox," says Dr. Elombe Calvert, a co-author of the study.

At baseline, the participants were spending about two hours a day on the five social media apps the study was looking at: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and X (formerly Twitter). "During the detox, it fell to like 30 minutes a day," says Calvert.

By the end of that third week, Calvert and the team found a 16% reduction in anxiety symptoms, a 24% decrease in depression symptoms and a 14.5% decrease in insomnia symptoms. "So, it's very effective," says Calvert.

Torous notes that the results mirror what his and his colleagues' patients report. "We definitely have had patients telling us for some time that they've tried digital detoxes on their own [and] that they find it useful," he says.

Most participants in the study, however, did not score high enough in the mental health screenings to qualify for a mental health diagnosis, notes Torous. Only a minority showed elevated levels of symptoms at baseline, and this group showed "greater improvement," he says.

Striking results

"It usually takes eight to 12 weeks of intensive psychotherapy to see those kinds of reductions in mental health symptoms," says psychologist Mitch Prinstein, chief of strategy and integration at the American Psychological Association. "So if you can get those with just one week of change in behavior, wow!"

What's also striking, adds Prinstein, is that as the participants cut back on social media use, their screen time didn't go down. They were doing other things on their devices.

"So, it really helps us see that it's not just your screen that's a problem," he says. "It might be social media in particular."

Ready to get some relief yourself? Here are a few tips from experts:

1. Block out time

Using social media mindfully can help, says Prinstein. That can take the form of setting goals for when we check our phones and for what. For example, setting aside 10-minute blocks at specific times to get rid of notifications or check headlines or unread messages. "Doing so seems to work and keeps us from getting distracted or going down rabbit holes for hours," he says. 

2. Make it harder to log on and scroll

Removing apps from the home screen and disabling notifications from social media apps can help too, says psychiatrist Amir Afkhami, at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. So does "logging out of the platform after use, which makes it a little bit harder to get back in," he says.

3. Protect sleep

For many people, social media use affects mood through "nighttime scrolling" by disrupting sleep and contributing to insomnia, says Afkhami. For those individuals, restricting evening or nighttime use is key, he adds. In a study published this year, Torous and his co-authors recommend "at least one hour of tech-free time before bed, to mentally disconnect from the online world and promote adequate, restful sleep." Parents can help teenagers build a habit of not using social media at night by designating bedrooms as "tech-free zones" at night, according to Torous and his colleagues. 

4. Stroll more, scroll less

For those who turn to social media during periods of boredom, Afkhami recommends replacing screen time with physical activity like a walk or a run. "The initial hump is a little bit higher," he says, "but over time, actually, patients end up liking it more because they get more of a dopamine surge than they do with social media." 

5. Seek treatment, if more is going on

For many people, social media overuse is linked to underlying mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety and ADHD, adds Afkhami. And while cutting back on social media might help alleviate some of those symptoms, he recommends that they also seek treatment from a mental health care provider.
Copyright 2025 NPR

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.