At this point the evidence is pretty clear: social media and study are pretty incompatible.
And it can be toxic af, especially for students.
In fact, studies have found social media to be so distracting to students many schools have completely banned phones during class to prevent distraction in the classroom.
According to a Tallo survey, a web-based networking platform for college students, a whopping 82% of Gen Zs say social media distracts them from school.
Yeah. Eight out of 10.
Meme joke aside, it appears that Instagram – or rather Meta, Instagram’s parent company – is indeed trying to ‘change their mind’.
Having considered the negative impact that social media can have on the learning process, Instagram’s just launched a new ‘Quiet Mode’ feature, which users can activate to pause notifications within the app when they need to take a break.
Say, to study or complete an assignment. Without distractions.
Instagram developed Quiet Mode in response to feedback from teenagers who want more ways to focus on school work in the evenings and to encourage people to set boundaries with friends and followers. They do this by setting their profile status to ‘quiet mode’ which will sends auto-replies to any incoming messages on the app.
So far, the changes have been rolled out in Australia and New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, United States and Canada.
But that’s not all.
Other updates include an upgrade in parental supervision tools, and the introduction of Hidden Words in Privacy Settings, which includes features that allow users to hide keywords in comments and DMs, log keywords they want to void seeing on the platform, and the option to flag words or hashtags in order to stop receiving recommendations for content.
Users will also be able to choose to “hide content pushed to them in the Explore page by selecting “not interested”. The platform’s algorithm will use these inputs to better customise recommended content shown to users on Reels, Search and Explore.
Instagram said in an announcement that the updates are part of “ongoing work to ensure people have experiences that work for them, and that they have more control over the time they spend online and the types of content they see”.
The question is, will students have the self-control to actually use the new features?
