Facebook is hoping to instill trust by showing users how much time they’re wasting on its platform—including on its visual-sharing app, Instagram.
On Wednesday, Facebook announced that it was rolling out tools that will show users the average daily time spent on Facebook and/or Instagram on your device. You can set alerts to limit your time on either platform or mute push notifications, helping you to better focus.
All but 1 percent of Facebook and Instagram users will have access to these features in the next few weeks (the remainder are being kept from them for comparative testing).
Ameet Ranadive, product management director at Instagram, and David Ginsberg, director of research at Facebook, wrote in a Facebook blog post:
… We developed these tools based on collaboration and inspiration from leading mental health experts and organizations, academics, our own extensive research and feedback from our community. We want the time people spend on Facebook and Instagram to be intentional, positive and inspiring. Our hope is that these tools give people more control over the time they spend on our platforms and also foster conversations between parents and teens about the online habits that are right for them.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. Below the dashboard, you can set a daily reminder to give yourself an alert when you’ve reached the amount of time you want to spend on that app for that day. You can change or cancel the reminder at any time. You can also tap on “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.
The new tools are the latest moves Facebook and Instagram have made to help improve users’ experience and address concerns.
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Ranadive and Ginsberg wrote:
… On Facebook, we improved News Feed quality to show people the most relevant posts with features like See First, Hide, Unfollow, and Keyword Snooze. On Instagram, we launched powerful tools to proactively care for the community — like the “You’re All Caught Up” message in Feed, keyword filtering, sensitivity screens, and offensive comment and bullying filters.
However, Facebook isn’t the first to introduce a “time spent” feature.
It's hard not to see this as bandwagon-jumping on the part of Facebook. Earlier this summer, Google and Apple each introduced a similar suite of tools, which give users more granular control of notifications and screen time. Those initiatives seemed to remind people that it’s not your phone that’s the problem—it’s all the junk on it that continually distracts you and wastes your time. Google’s Digital Wellness initiative and Apple’s Screen Time tools both aim to neuter apps like Facebook and Instagram, which stand in the center of the dopamine vortex on our phones. Now, Facebook and Instagram want to position themselves as allies—not enemies—in that pursuit.
It might seem counterproductive for the company to share with its users exactly how much time they’re spending on Facebook and Instagram, especially in the wake of its recent stock drop—the largest single-day market decline in history. However, Facebook’s chief said the company is putting its users over its business goals.
The news comes as Facebook's stock is struggling to recover from last week's second-quarter earnings report in which it lowered its outlook on revenue and raised its forecast for expenses. On an earnings call last November, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had said: "I want to be clear about what our priority is. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits."
Ranadive and Ginsberg wrote:
It’s not just about the time people spend on Facebook and Instagram but how they spend that time. It’s our responsibility to talk openly about how time online impacts people — and we take that responsibility seriously. These new tools are an important first step, and we are committed to continuing our work to foster safe, kind and supportive communities for everyone.
However compelling Zuckerberg’s statement is—or how touching the comments Ranadive and Ginsberg made to back it up—Facebook’s announcement also follows more negative news about how the platform continues to struggle with fake news, clickbait and trolls bent on political influence.
The rollout comes a day after Facebook revealed new evidence of dangers lurking on the social media platform. In advance of the U.S. midterm elections, the company found evidence of a political influence campaign and removed 32 accounts and pages from Facebook and Instagram. Though company officials said it was unclear who might be behind the effort, an analysis from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab said that “an initial scan shows behavioral patterns and use of language reminiscent of the troll operations run from Russia in 2014 through 2017.”
It’s not only recent crises that have plagued the social media platform, either.
Wired reported:
It’s useful to remember this [comes] after the year Facebook’s had, which includes: the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a two-day Congressional hearing, news of a compromised election, admitted influence from Russian trolls, repeated problems with fake news and fake accounts , a 20 percent plummet in stock , and, you know, accusations of inciting genocide.
Some reporters pointed out that the effort won’t make that big of a difference to Facebook or Instagram users, either.
Giving users a raw count of the minutes they’ve spent in their apps each day in the last week plus their average across the week is a good start to making users more mindful. But by burying them largely out of sight, giving them no real way to compel less usage and not distinguishing between passive and active behavior, they seem destined to be ignored while missing the point the company itself stresses.
It's an especially important consideration for younger users. Though a recent Pew Research study revealed a 20 percent drop in teenage Facebook users from 2014-2015, many teens are turning to social media apps, namely Instagram.
What do you think of the new tools for Facebook and Instagram?
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