Users can now see if they’re addicted to social media
Starting on Wednesday, Facebook and Instagram users will be able to track how much time they are spending on said applications.
Facebook and Instagram will provide users with data regarding the time users spend both daily and weekly on the apps. The apps will also give users options to stop push notifications for specific timeframes, as well as a self-implemented cutoff time for social media usage. These features will combine to help users to better understand and manage their time spent on these social media platforms.
Facebook’s director of research, David Ginsberg, reported that these features will complement the changes that the company made to users’ News Feeds in January. Said changes optimized the posts displayed on people’s news feeds.
Ginsberg stated:
“This is about giving people the tools and the insights for them to decide for themselves what they want to be doing.”
The social media giant wants to optimize people’s usage while simultaneously limiting it.
Facebook wants users to only see content which is meaningful to their lives. However, This can be challenging to regulate when the Internet has an infinite amount of content. Facebook’s head of communications Gretchen Sloan explained:
As we learn more about how people’s relationship with media technologies impact their well-being, we’re looking for ways to help give people more control. We want people’s time [online] to be intentional and meaningful — that’s actually good for the business. I don’t know how people will react when they see the time that they spent. It’ll be interesting to learn that.
Apple and Google are two other tech companies which have sought similar developments. Nowadays, people spend an abundance of time on social media, and these companies hope to curb that to the best of their abilities.
Featured Image via Flickr/downloadsource.fr
