Like most things in life, social media has its downfalls, but it can also be great for many people, from providing work to offering people a platform to express themselves and their hobbies - as well of course helping people to connect. We’re not against social media at all but we do see the problems with ‘doomscrolling’, where people just consume negative news and opinions. 

At Uptime we want to discover the impact social media and ‘doomscrolling’ has on a person’s productivity, wellbeing and self-growth, so over the next couple of months we will be carrying out a study to discover just this. And to help launch our investigation we’re looking to pay a self-confessed social media lover to quit using the platforms for two months.

The successful applicant will be paid £2,000 to stop using all social media for the eight-week period.  We will also find out how they use their newfound downtime, as well as ask them to record their happiness levels, behaviour and productivity whilst not spending their free time on the platforms they use like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube.

We will ask the successful ‘social media quitter’ to answer a frequent questionnaire and will be asked to keep both a written and video journal to record their experience. We want to discover as much information as we can about how much time a person could spend improving themselves and their knowledge - alongside their wellbeing and productivity - if they were to decrease their time spent on social media or ‘doomscrolling’.

Experts have warned that ‘doomscrolling’ can be harmful to mental health and that social media can be a behavioural addiction. Studies have proven that social media can increase dopamine levels in the same part of the brain that drugs and alcohol can, meaning when a person gets a notification or ‘like’ they can experience the same highs other addictive substances similarly cause.*

The findings from these studies, combined with statistics that reveal that an average person’s time spent on social media has increased by 16% since the start of the pandemic***, are what has driven us to launch our own study. We don't think everyone needs to delete social media forever, but we do aim to inspire people to use their downtime in a way that’s better for them, highlighting how using your time productively can result in learning more and a better wellbeing, contrary to the minutes spent wasting time online.

In addition to the ‘quitters fee’ of £2,000 for two months, we will also cover expenses of up to £50 per month for online resources that our case study can use to improve their self-growth and wellbeing.

No previous qualifications or experience are required for the role; however, we do ask that any hopeful applicants are over the age of 18 and be a self-confessed social media lover with at least four profiles on either Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube.

As we hope to gather insights on people's personal use of social media only, we ask that all applicants only use these social media platforms for social reasons only, not for business purposes. In addition, we will not ask the successful candidate to delete any social media they use for professional purposes such as LinkedIn.

If you’re interested in quitting social media for the next two months, please sign up using the form below. Applications close on 21st February and we plan on choosing the successful candidate soon after.

* https://www.addictioncenter.com/drugs/social-media-addiction/

***https://www.statista.com/statistics/1018324/us-users-daily-social-media-minutes/

If you're looking for ways to reduce your screentime while you're waiting to hear back on your application, you can look at our best tips for cutting down on your social media time here.

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