Study: The secret to happiness is simple — hang up the smart phone

For a happier life, get off the phone, out of the house and back to basics, like taking a walk.

That in a nutshell is the recommendation of a new study that says blocking the internet and social media sites from their phones for two weeks left 91% of adults nationwide feeling better.

“It’s not surprising to me that a little time away from technology would improve one’s mood,” said Dr. Victor Fornari, the vice chair of child and adolescent psychiatry for Northwell Health.

Smartphones, Fornari added, have created “a new level of stress. It has really transformed our relationship with people, and it’s got to be at a price.”

Researchers had already sounded the alarm about phones contributing to depression and anxiety among children. The new study found both conditions can apply to adults from phone use as well. Taking a break also improved people’s attention spans, the study found.

“Every hour that I speak with people I hear something about their negative impact from social media or from a text or from a communication that came through their smart phone,” Fornari said.

The monthlong study, conducted by researchers in the United States and Canada, involved 467 people, ages 18 to 74, who agreed to install a device on their smartphone that blocked all internet access for two weeks. People could still make calls, text, or use a desktop computer.

The results, published in the scientific journal PNAS Nexus, found that 91% of the participants reported improvement in at least one of three areas: mental health, subjective well-being and ability to sustain attention.

When blocked from constant access to the internet, including social media, participants spent less time on their phones and more time socializing in person, exercising, and being in nature, the study said.

And taking a phone break can even help with depression nearly as much as certain prescription drugs, according to the study.

“People were very concerned about children, but I think we need to be concerned about adults as well because the data shows that the rates of anxiety and depression are also increasing in adults,” said Dr. Judith Joseph, a psychiatrist at New York University Langone Medical Center and the author of “High Functioning: Overcome Hidden Depression and Reclaim Your Joy.”

Dr. Lauren Hale, a professor of preventive medicine and a sleep behavior expert at Stony Brook Medicine, said the study’s results came as no surprise.

“Sleep and time use are huge gifts that you can get back if you put your phone down,” Hale said. “Time that we are looking down at our devices is time that we are missing out on engaging in the real world.”

At least one Long Islander, Rosario Constantino, 21, of Bayport, said he was willing to try the two-week experiment.

A senior at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, Constantino said he went on a hike with college friends on a nearby mountain two years ago and had a great time — but hadn’t been back since, partly because his phone consumes so much of his life and attention.

Constantino said he has put limits on his phone on apps such as Instagram, setting aside one or two hours a day to spend on the site instead of the previous four or five

“If I don’t set those limits on my phone” he said of its potential affect on his class assignments, “I think literally half of it would get done, or maybe less.”

Joseph said the study “brings us hope because knowing that being present, engaging in things that stimulate our five senses — looking at nature, connecting with loved ones, savoring our food, getting good rest — this is what happiness is, and I think many of us don’t even realize that. Get joy in other places besides technology.”