For users in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, Instagram introduced a new option on Thursday called “quiet mode.” This mode is Instagram’s take on the popular “Do not disturb” setting on mobile devices.
🎉 New Control Features 🎉
Today, we’re launching new tools to help people — especially teens — manage their time and what they see on Instagram:
– Quiet Mode
– Hidden Words for Recommendations
– Not Interested Multi-Selecthttps://t.co/6FwwLaqzwM pic.twitter.com/A5FbRb58XZ— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) January 19, 2023
Even though it is accessible to all users, Meta designed it with young people in mind so that they could take a break from the never-ending scrolling and concentrate on their schoolwork, particularly in the evening.
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The company also mentioned that it will warn adolescents if they spend an excessive amount of time on the app at night.
As soon as the function is activated, it will immediately stop all alerts, begin auto-responding to messages, and change your activity status to “in silent mode.” When the feature is off, the user will be presented with a summary of all the activities that passed them by. With this release, Meta wants to assist individuals in “setting boundaries with friends and followers.” In the future, Meta intends to introduce it to a wider variety of countries.
Additionally, Instagram has included a greater number of parental restrictions and other methods for personalizing suggestions. Users now have the ability to mark posts that appear on the ‘Explore’ page as ‘not interested’ in order to prevent seeing similar content in the future. Users can also block phrases, emoticons, and hashtag recommendations. Parents are able to receive notifications if their ward modifies a setting, and they can also view blacklisted accounts on their child’s handle.
A poll conducted by Common Sense Media found that the amount of time spent in front of screens by adolescents rose by 17% between the years 2019 and 2021. According to the most recent data from Data.ai, members of Generation Z use Instagram more than any other social media platform. Meta’s ‘silent mode’ is the latest in a series of moves by the company to give users more control over their digital footprints. This comes as criticism is being leveled at the potentially negative impact that social media has on adolescents and young people.
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Recently, Instagram introduced ‘nudges,’ which alert teenagers spending too much time on a particular topic – especially comparing appearances – to change content. Additionally, it introduced parental supervision tools to set time limits for kids and recommendations of activities that are not related to social media for users to engage in when they want to take a break from the app.
Instagram has also unveiled a number of safety safeguards that will protect the privacy of users under the age of 18 and restrict their access to adult content and advertisements.
