No more pretending you aren't addicted to social media.
In an official blog post this morning, Facebook announced an "activity dashboard" to help users better manage time spent on social media, which includes daily reminders, notification limits, and a time-tracker that shows how much time you've spent on the apps.
The goal of this new suite of tools, per the statement, was to encourage users to engage with their platform in healthy ways, rather than the "passive scrolling" that produces demonstrable negative health effects:
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.
These tools are available today to U.S. users, with a global rollout in the coming weeks.
The dashboard allows users to set time limits on usage, after which the app will send a notification -- but with no "hard stop" feature, it's up to you to adhere to your self-imposed time frame.
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Of yet, these tools don't provide specified data around types of usage -- desktop vs. mobile, active vs. passive -- but this step marks another effort by the social media giant to shift its image in the public eye.
This also follows major mainstream backlash to the revelations in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Citizens and governments worldwide are beginning to understand the implications of data and social media in swaying public opinion -- as evinced by California's recent data privacy legislation and Facebook's precipitous drop on Wall Street.
These new tools offer insight into the ways Facebook -- and by proxy, other major tech companies -- will seek to maintain appeal with a more tech-savvy, tech-literate populace.
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