Cowes-based charity UKSA has said that its screen time reduction trial has been a success, as it looks to ease social media-induced anxiety among young students. Earlier this year, UKSA launched the trial as a third of an increasingly screen-dependent Generation Z, students aged 16 to 25, said they worried that they were spending too much time on social media. UKSA has now completed a 7-week trial among 12 of its Further Education students with 58% reporting an overall reduction in anxiety. The largest reduction recorded was, coincidentally, also 58% and the smallest, 2%. The trial was aiming to encourage non-screen-based activities, boost socialising in person and reduce social media-induced anxiety. Clare Powell, Education Manager at UKSA leading on the trial said:
“This project was really valuable and although some of the students achieved a reduction and some remained at a similar level of screen time, the value of the project was evident by the response and changed behaviour, particularly in class time. Six of our staff team also took part to be fully involved in the project. Each week, the learners and staff were interested in the results and came up with new strategies to reduce screentime.”
UKSA worked with the students to establish the times they typically spend more time on screens and offer alternative activities during these times with students sharing their screen data on a weekly basis with the UKSA team. Clare adds:
“We wanted to work with the students to help them individually identify the causes of the screen time, what alternatives might be available. Are they scrolling out of boredom rather than need? And how can we address that to create new, more healthy habits”.
As a result of the trial, UKSA has updated its mental health strategy and included a new section on screen time so it now forms part of the mental health teaching to all students, which is delivered through the charity’s welfare team. It is also introducing a new e-learning module into its further education courses on keeping safe online which will be rolled out in September.
