Instagram will soon add a feature to encourage people who display potentially harmful behaviors to “take a break” from its app . In addition, it will try to avoid that the most exposed audiences, such as teenagers, do not focus on potentially harmful content.
Photo by Katka Pavlickova on Unsplash This has been confirmed by Nick Clegg, head of international relations at Facebook, in an interview with the North American media CNN this Sunday. There, he has confirmed a functionality that has been dubbed Take a break (Take a breath, in English). This “will prompt teens to just take a break from using Instagram.”
Along with her, “we are going to present something that I think will make a considerable difference,” explains Clegg. “It is where our systems see that a teenager is watching the same content over and over again, and it is content that may not be conducive to their well-being. “In these cases, the manager ensures that the platform will attract their attention so that they consume other types of content .
Instagram, the network adolescent social
This announcement comes after Instagram has found itself in the eye of the hurricane in recent weeks. The goal, the publication of several discoveries by the platform regarding how it affects the mental health of its users. A situation that has also led to a pause in the development of Kids, a version of it focused on children.
Mateus Campos Felipe / Unsplash The social network already announced last September that it was working in this field. It happened just after the published investigations reflected that from the platform were aware of the problems that users could potentially develop by using their app.
Among them, some of the most notorious are those referring to the conception of a negative perspective on one's own body , when compared to much of the content that predominates on the Internet. From Instagram they assured then that they were “cautiously optimistic” with measures such as those described.
“We are cautiously optimistic that these changes will help steer people to content that inspires and uplifts them. And, to a greater extent, they will change the part of Instagram culture that focuses on how people look.”
At the moment, the details about how Take a break or the diversion of attention to other content will work, as well as its exact implementation date, are unknown.