Elon Musk on mental health: what the evidence says · JRE #1169
SUBJECT: MENTAL HEALTH
The short answer
Musk agrees that deleting social media apps gives roughly a 10% boost to happiness. No published research establishes a specific percentage gain in happiness or wellbeing from quitting or deactivating social media. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of ten social-media-abstinence studies (N=4,674 participants, 38 effect sizes) found no significant effect of abstinence on positive affect, negative affect, or life satisfaction, and no relationship between abstinence duration and these outcomes.
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
Now, deleting social media from your applications, from your phones, does that give you a 10% boost to happiness? What do you think the percentage is? I think probably something like that, yeah. Yeah, a good 10%.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Musk speculated, without citing any study, that deleting social media apps produces roughly a 10% boost in happiness. No published research establishes a specific percentage gain in happiness or wellbeing from quitting or deactivating social media. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of ten social-media-abstinence studies (N=4,674 participants, 38 effect sizes) found no significant effect of abstinence on positive affect, negative affect, or life satisfaction, and no relationship between abstinence duration and these outcomes. A separate systematic review of 16 studies on social media and mental health describes mixed, methodologically limited findings (cross-sectional designs, sampling limitations) rather than a settled quantitative effect. The claim's specific "10%" figure appears to be an off-the-cuff estimate rather than a finding from any known study.