ARMany social media platforms regularly update their settings to improve user experience. In more recent times, major platforms have made significant changes in the way content is presented to users and have even implemented features to support digital wellbeing. Instagram announced many updates last year including the ‘Take a Break’ feature, new sensitive content control options as well as launching new technology to support age verification. Now, they have released a new feature called ‘Quiet Mode’ as well as additional ways to help users manage what content they see.
Quiet Mode
Released in the UK this week, ‘Quiet Mode’ can support teenagers with setting some boundaries on Instagram by shielding them from notifications and messages, once enabled. Instagram has stated that teenagers have spoken around how they sometimes need time away from technology to focus on areas such as school or other activities. With this feature, their online status will change to ‘In quiet mode’ and any notification received will be hidden until ‘Quiet Mode’ is turned off. Interestingly, if a direct message is also received during this time, an automatic response will be sent notifying the user that they are unavailable.
Notifications will then be shown at a time more suitable once ‘Quiet Mode’ is switched off. Instagram allows users to set what times they want ‘Quiet Mode’ to be active, allowing them to set times when they know they will be busy and need to focus on other things. Prompts will also be sent to encourage ‘Quiet Mode’ if there seems to be a lot of online activity at night.
Managing Recommendations and Parental Controls
Alongside this new feature, Instagram has also made some changes to how recommendations are presented to users and how they can better manage what content they see. Users are now able to ‘hide multiple pieces of content in Explore’ whilst expanding hidden recommendations across Reels and Search if a user has selected ‘Not Interested’ on a piece content.
To expand their Hidden Words feature, Instagram now lets you hide recommended posts by inputting words and topics you no longer wish to see across the platform. This could be posts around topics such as sport, health or gaming which you may have little interest in. Once in place, these types of posts should then be hidden from your recommendations.
Last year, Instagram also updated their parental control settings, giving parents more oversight of their teen’s activity online whilst providing them with more control around screentime and awareness of followers. Now, with these new settings, parents have more oversight of their teen’s privacy and account settings whilst receiving notifications when any setting is changed.
Considerations
Instagram has made some positive changes throughout the previous year and it is good to see these new updates that continue to highlight digital wellbeing for young people. While these new features can support, we remind users to continue making use of Report Harmful Content if any harmful content is encountered online as the risk of this still remains. As these features need to be set up, it is essential for conversations to be had between parents and young people around why features like this may be needed. Conversations like this encourage appropriate breaks and will encourage users to filter out material that may be unwanted or considered harmful.
For more information on Instagram and privacy settings, download our free checklist. Through this article, we have explored Instagrams approach to digital wellbeing, and if you would like to explore further guidance and advice around this topic, please visit our ‘Digital Wellbeing Hub’
