A study has shown an increasing number of teens are escaping social media by taking "detoxes".
The study, by Digital Awareness UK, found 71 percent of high school age children take a break from social media to detox.
The study also reported students experienced negative effects from social media, with 57 percent saying they had received abusive comments online, while 52 percent felt social media made them less confident about their life or their looks.
Social media commentator Vaughn Davis says that in New Zealand social media breaks can be rare.
Mr Davis says " There's an increasing awareness that the kind of late night screen time that social media leads to just isn't good for sleep length or quality, and that can lead to real health issues."
In the UK, Beneden, a private boarding school in Kent, allowed students to undertake a voluntary three day social media blackout.
According to the school's headmistress, Samantha Price, the students reacted extremely well to the blackout.
She told The Guardian: "When young people have time away from social media they see and feel the benefits: they sleep better, concentrate and therefore learn better and feel better. Of course, social media and the internet is not the enemy there are enormous positives to them but it is a matter of finding the right balance."
Newshub.
