Facebook officially announced a set of tools that will tell users how much time they have spent on the social network, as well as help them limit their usage.
The tools, which will also be available on Facebook-owned Instagram, will try to help curb smartphone addiction. Both teens and adults have been drawn to digital screens, possibly without knowing how many hours per day they spend looking at their phones.
How To Check Time Spent On Facebook And Instagram
The new tools have started rolling out on Facebook and Instagram, ready to be accessed by users who will likely be shocked at how much time they spend on the social networks.
The tools are found in the Settings page of either app. On Facebook, the option will be Your Time on Facebook, while on Instagram it will be Your Activity.
The top part of the tool will be occupied by a dashboard that shows the average time that the user has spent on that app in that device. This is where users will likely be surprised at how much time they spend browsing Facebook and Instagram, instead of doing other, more productive things.
How To Limit Facebook And Instagram Use
Fortunately, the new Facebook and Instagram feature will also help users in limiting the time they spend on the social networks.
Below the dashboard displaying the time spent on the apps, users will be able to set daily reminders that will alert them if they have reached a certain amount of time spent on Facebook or Instagram each day. Users are also offered a shortcut to their Notification Settings, with the notifications able to be muted for different lengths of time in case there is a need to focus.
Addressing Smartphone Addiction
Facebook is the latest tech company to offer tools that look to address smartphone addiction. In June, Apple revealed that the upcoming iOS 12 will come with a new feature named Screen Time, which will provide users with incredibly detailed information on how people use their iPhones and iPads.
There has been clamor for tech companies to solve the growing problem of smartphone addiction, and steps such as those taken by Facebook and Apple are just the start of the solution. Smartphone addiction has become detrimental to real-world relationships and may even cause physical conditions such as brain imbalance, so the race to address it needs to go much faster.
