What happened when people quit Facebook for a month

A guide from the makers of Latch · October 3, 2026 · 3 minute read

Most claims about social media and happiness come from surveys, which can't tell whether social media makes people unhappy or unhappy people use more social media. A team of economists tested it directly by paying people to stop.

The experiment

In 2018, in the four weeks before the US midterm elections, Hunt Allcott, Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer and Matthew Gentzkow paid a randomly chosen group of Facebook users to deactivate their accounts. They compared those people with a similar group who kept using Facebook as usual (Allcott et al., 2020).

What changed

The hour didn't disappear into other websites. People spent more of it offline, including more time with family and friends. They reported higher subjective well-being. They also followed the news less closely and became somewhat less politically polarized, a reminder that cutting back has trade-offs as well as benefits.

The result most people find surprising came after the four weeks ended. People who had deactivated went back to Facebook, but they used it noticeably less than before. A month away seems to have broken part of the habit.

Trying a reset yourself

Pick a length you'll finish

The study used four weeks. If that feels like too much, two weeks is still long enough to notice what you do with the time.

Choose the app that costs you the most

For some people it's Facebook. For others it's Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. Look at your screen time report and pick the top one.

Make the break hard to undo on a whim

Deactivating an account works because logging back in takes effort. If you'd rather keep the account, lock the app instead, with the unlock somewhere you have to walk to.

Plan the return

The habit tends to come back slowly. A daily limit, such as 15 or 20 minutes, keeps some of the time you won back after the reset ends. Latch's daily limits work this way: once an app's time is up, it stays locked until the next day or until you scan your key.

Where Latch fits

Latch is an app blocker that only unlocks when you scan a key you keep somewhere else: an NFC sticker, a printed QR code, or a number of steps. It's free to start, out now on the App Store and Google Play.

Take the two-minute habit check

Sources

• Allcott, H., Braghieri, L., Eichmeyer, S. and Gentzkow, M. (2020). The Welfare Effects of Social Media. American Economic Review 110(3). AEA

Photo: public domain (CC0).