Project social (step out, connect in-person, abandon likes): targeting adolescents' social media use and real-time conversations to improve well-being

The National Institute of Mental Health awarded West Virginia University $344,250 on September 1, 2026, under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) to conduct Project SOCIAL, an experimental intervention study targeting adolescents' social media use and in-person social interactions.

The study enrolls 400 tenth-grade students in a three-week protocol combining daily brief reports and phone tracking. Week one establishes baselines for conversation frequency and social media use. Weeks two and three randomly assign participants to one of four conditions: social media reduction (limiting use to less than one hour daily), conversation increase (one 10-minute deep conversation per day), expressive writing as an active control, or a passive control group. Students complete longer surveys at baseline, immediately post-intervention, two weeks later, and two months after the intervention concludes. The research examines whether decreased social media use and increased real-time socializing improve adolescent well-being, with analysis of mediating factors including daily mood, loneliness, and health behaviors.

Performance occurs in Morgantown, West Virginia. The period of performance runs through June 30, 2029.

Abstract

Two well-recognized risks for emotional health in teens today are their use of social media and social isolation. Despite correlational studies linking these to teen depression, anxiety, or low well-being, there is a critical GAP in experimental studies or interventions targeting social media and social interactions in youth. Experimental studies with college students or adult samples show that when they decrease social media use or increase their sociability, they often have improved well-being. Given the declines in adolescents' mental health today, an intervention testing effects of decreased social media use and increased real-time socializing is critically needed. In the proposed study, 400 10TH grade students will complete 3 weeks of brief daily reports and phone tracking. The first week establishes baselines for conversations and social media. For weeks 2 and 3, they are randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: 1) social media reduction (socmedred), limit social media use to < 1 hour /day; 2) conversation increase (converseinc), one 10-minute deep conversation per day; 3) expressive writing (journal), as an active control condition given IT is effective in youth but does not include a social component; and 4) control (control), a passive control group not asked to change behavior during the intervention. In addition to brief daily surveys for two weeks, teens are asked to complete longer surveys: a) immediately prior to baseline week; b) after the intervention week; c) 2 weeks later; and d) 2 months after the intervention. We expect the biggest benefits for socmedred and converseinc compared to the active and passive control groups at the immediate and 2-week follow-up. Mediators of the socmedred and converseinc conditions (e.g., daily mood, loneliness, health behaviors) will be obtained from the daily reports. Finally, we will investigate moderated effects to determine who is more likely to benefit from the conditions (e.g., teens will elevated symptoms at baseline would benefit more in the socmedred, converseinc, journal conditions; more extraverted teens would benefit less in the socmedred or converseinc condition; those who see more strangers and news on social media would benefit more in the socmedred condition). This study will be the first to examine: a) if decreased social media or increased real-time conversations decrease depressive and anxiety symptoms or increase well-being; b) if these social interventions are more impactful than an effective, but solitary, journal intervention; c) proposed mechanisms to account for changes in mental health; and d) determine who is likely to benefit from these conditions. The results from this study have timely implications to address the need to identify relatively simple and feasible ways to improve adolescents' mental health. Ultimately, we will incorporate information gained from this study into a multi-component program that we are developing to target modifiable behaviors such as these in brief modules to help promote adolescent well-being and resilience.