The multiplication of social networking sites has led to increased frequency of use among young adults. While the association with mental wellbeing is still controversial, high levels of social media use were correlated with problematic behaviours, low self-esteem and depressive symptoms. 'Social Media Detoxification' (Detox) is the term used to describe voluntary attempts at reducing or stopping social media use to improve wellbeing. We conducted a pilot study to explore the characteristics of social media detoxification applied by 68 university students in their social media activity. Descriptive analysis revealed that most students reported a positive change in mood, reduced anxiety and improved sleep during and in the immediate aftermath of the detoxification period. These preliminary findings show that 'social media detoxification' is a phenomenon understood and used by university students to moderate their social media use. Wide variability in its application and effects is noted in our sample.

Cognitive development studies how information processing in the brain changes over the course of development. A key part of this question is how information is represented and stored in memory. This study examined allocentric (world-based) spatial memory, an important cognitive tool for planning routes and interacting with the space around us. This is typically theorized to use multiple landmarks all at once whenever it operates. In contrast, here we show that allocentric spatial memory frequently operates over a limited spatial window, much less than the full proximal scene, for children between 3.5 and 8.5 years old. The use of multiple landmarks increases gradually with age. Participants were asked to point to a remembered target location after a change of view in immersive virtual reality. A k-fold cross-validation model-comparison selected a model where young children usually use the target location’s vector to the single nearest landmark and rarely take advantage of the vectors to other nearby landmarks. The comparison models, which attempt to explain the errors as generic forms of noise rather than encoding to a single spatial cue, did not capture the distribution of responses as well. Parameter fits of this new single- versus multi-cue model are also easily interpretable and related to other variables of interest in development (age, executive function). Based on this, we theorize that spatial memory in humans develops through three advancing levels (but not strict stages): most likely to encode locations egocentrically (relative to the self), then allocentrically (relative to the world) but using only one landmark, and finally, most likely to encode locations relative to multiple parts of the scene.

No abstract

No abstract