Facebook adds a Snooze button for muting people

Facebook adds a Snooze button for muting people

Facebook today is launching a new feature designed to give users more control over what content they see in their News Feed: a “Snooze” button. The option, which will become available via the top-right dropdown menu on a post, will mute content from a person, Page or group for 30 days.

The new feature can serve as a way to dial down the content you don’t want to see, without having to fully unfollow or unfriend someone.

For example, if you’ve had enough of someone’s political rants or baby photos, you can temporarily opt to see less of them in your News Feed. You could also turn off a particularly chatty Facebook friend whose continuous updates clutter your feed.

The option could be useful for people going through a breakup, too  – that is, one where they’re staying connected socially, but don’t necessary want constant reminders of what an ex is up to. That’s an area Facebook has explored in the past, with the 2015 debut of tools to help you see less from former flames. However, not many people seem to know these features exist. Snooze, on the other hand, will be far more visible.

For Pages and Groups, having a Snooze catch implies they might have the capacity to better hold their less dynamic clients, who may have generally unliked them or left the gathering to keep away from their substance.

Today’s launch has settled on a month as the right amount of time spent on mute.

Snooze joins a series of other content controls for News Feed, like Unfollow, Hide, Report and See First, which give people more ways to customize their experience, notes Facebook.

The update, while seemingly minor, comes at a time when many people – includingsome of Facebook’s early founders – are questioning whether social media is having a negative impact on people and society as a whole. A network that’s too tuned to what people want to see, and provides that to them by way of algorithms, can lead to addiction and an inability to relate to different people and opinions.

The other side of Facebook's toolset for profound personalization, including now Snooze, are these continuous worries that Facebook's interpersonal organization can turn out to be excessively agreeable for individuals. It enables individuals to hide themselves in reality as we know it where everybody thinks like them, appreciates similar things, and posts comparative news and different things. Be that as it may, this isn't this present reality, where individuals' feelings can uncontrollably vary. The consequence of this air pocket impact is a decrease in being presented to new thoughts, and an expanded narrow mindedness for the individuals who don't share your same convictions. 

Rest, in that specific circumstance, could be seen not as an engaging apparatus, but rather one that could possibly lead individuals to additionally separating themselves from companions with alternate points of view – whether political, religious, social or something else – basically in light of the fact that it's something you would prefer not to see. 

Be that as it may, at any rate Snooze's constrained cooldown period could prevent individuals from unfriending individuals with these restricting perspectives..

Facebook notes that when the Snooze period is about to end, it will notify you of this – presumably, in case you need to snooze them again. You can also reverse a snooze at any time, the company notes.

The Snooze button is rolling out today, across Facebook.