Facebook has announced new tools to help people manage their time on its platform as well as on Instagram.
According to the company, the tools are an activity dashboard, a daily reminder, and a new way to limit notifications.
The content provider in statement said the tools were developed based on collaboration and inspiration from leading mental health experts and organisations, academics,Facebook’s extensive research, and feedback from its community.
Commenting on the update, the Product Management Director, Instagram, Ameet Ranadive, and Director of Research at Facebook, David Ginsberg, said, “We want the time people spend on Facebook and Instagram to be intentional, positive and inspiring. Our hope is that these tools will give people more control over the time they spend on our platforms and foster conversations between parents and teens about the online habits that are right for them.”
He added, “To access the tools, go to the settings page on either app. On Instagram, tap “Your Activity,” and on Facebook, tap “Your Time on Facebook.” At the top, you’ll see a dashboard showing your average time for that app on that device. Tap any bar to see your total time for that day.”
The directors said below the dashboard, users could set a daily reminder to give themselves an alert when they have reached the amount of time they intend to spend on the app for that day.
According to them, users can change or cancel the reminder at any time by tapping on the “Notification Settings” to quickly access the new “Mute Push Notifications” setting.
“This will limit your Facebook or Instagram notifications for a period of time when you need to focus,” they said.
Facebook said it had a responsibility to help people understand how much time they spend on its platforms so they could better manage their experience.
“It is not just about the time people spend on Facebook and Instagram but how they spend that time. It is our responsibility to talk openly about how time online impacts people, and we take that responsibility seriously.”
