The social network of Instagram It has been receiving a lot of criticism for years due to adolescents who spend too much time on the application and how this affects their mental health. Facebook (Meta) has already stated that it knows that Instagram is toxic to teenage girls, according to internal company documents.
As reported to us a year ago, 22.1% reportedly say that Instagram improves their body image issues, while 32.4% that worsens them. This causes anxiety and depression in users.
Well, taking all this into account, Instagram has announced new measures to alleviate these effects with the new Silent Mode (Quiet Mode). This novelty will send automatic responses to users who try to send you messages on the platform, letting them know that you have not received any notification.
By launching Silent Mode on Instagram, Facebook (Meta) states that she wants to help people focus and encourage them to set limits with the application. They claim that the feature will allow Instagram users to manage their time and focus and limit their activity on social media.
To activate Silent Mode you will have to go to Instagram Settings, click on Notifications and there you will find the Silent Mode, which you can activate until the time you want. The feature is currently rolling out globally in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, with more countries coming soon (we understand Spain is on the list).
By the way, if you are one of those people who knows that your relationship with the digital world and the social media in particular it is affecting your general well-being, we leave you 5 tips to carry out an online detox.
Instagram and its negative effect on young people and their mental health
It seems that we live in a paradox, since we want to be helped to feel that we are fine, since we completely escape from reality and it even seems that it comforts us to see the problems of the rest and, at the same time, they make us feel worse and worse.
It’s no secret that excessive use of social media is linked to declining mental health and well-being, and it seems that the tool we once wanted to bring us closer is, in a way, pulling us apart. You just have to take a look at Twitter or Instagram to see it.
In this last case, which is the one that concerns us today, Instagram has reported that it will ask adolescent users to activate this Silent Mode function if they use the application late at night.
It should be noted that the launch of this novelty in the settings of the social network occurs at a time when Instagram is working to make its app less targeted by regulators and legislators concerned about the harms of social mediaespecially for teenagers.
Till the date, Instagram has added several safety features for teenssuch as those intended to protect your privacy and reduce unwanted contact with adults with the “Nudity Protection” feature, limit ad targeting, or restrict teens’ access to adult content.
Other improvements have also been included to help parents monitor and manage their children’s use of Instagram through parental controls.
Looking ahead, Instagram has promised to continue including more functions about it like hiding multiple unwanted content from the Explore section at once, which might help those whose pages resemble their behavior but not their real interests.
Also, if you select “Not interested” in an Explore post, Instagram will try to avoid showing you this same type of content in other recommendations in the app. A final adjustment in the recommendations of the users will be based on the blocked words.
This comes in an attempt to address the issue that searches for topics like “workout tips” or “healthy recipes” easily lead users and young people in particular to contents associated with extreme diets and eating disorders.
Just for context, the development of all these new Instagram tools by the company occurs after accusations and $400 million fines for institutions like the Irish Data Protection Commissionwhich carried out this lawsuit for failing to protect children’s information in some Instagram posts.
It should be noted that this is not the only lawsuit that it has lost, since the United States has already filed multiple complaints alleging that Instagram (Facebook) knowingly exploits its youngest users to obtain benefits both on one platform and on another.
