📷 Image Credit: Meta 👆
TL;DR: Instagram’s new quiet mode attempts to prevent harmful habits and mental health issues for teen girls that research has historically shown to be an issue.
We use social media a lot personally and professionally researching Gen Z and Gen Alpha trends, and we realize it’s really important to take screen time breaks. Instagram’s new feature, aimed at helping youth, has given Gen Z users a tool to help reduce teen screen time on Instagram, especially during hours crucial to good quality sleep. This new feature lets followers know when users are taking a break and reminds them that the user will receive a message once the break is over. This is also a great way for parents to engage and talk to their kids about not always being accessible.
It is interesting to see Instagram creating a feature that encourages disengagement when its algorithm tries to do quite the opposite. Could this feature encourage others to unplug? When Gen Z sees their friends around them in quiet mode, will they turn their “quiet mode” on too? It is possible that, over time, we will see more people using this feature.
Instagram might be hoping that this opportunity for a public break using their platform will bring fewer reports of struggles with body image issues among teen girls as a result. Creating this new tool/feature shows that Instagram is paying attention to its users’ mental health, especially their younger users. This conscious effort Instagram is making to improve mental health comes shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported, “Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.”
We took an impromptu survey of Bay Area college students, asking if they had heard about this new tool; not one person surveyed had heard about the quiet mode feature created by Instagram. However, they were most familiar with Apple’s app feature that limits time for each app. What do you think? Is Instagram’s new quiet mode redundant for apple users? Is this a tool you will use?
Click the link to see more and review directions….
Sources:Meta
Written by: Sofia Christensen, Intern
Edited by: Lisa Knight, COO & Mentor