Facebook Working on 'Your Time On Facebook' to Monitor Social Media Usage is Ironic, Here's Why

The social media usage has reached the level of addiction would be an old thing to state. Millennials are constantly hooked on checking their Facebook timelines or Instagram feeds. In order to keep a check on the same, the application is now working on developing a time monitor to track how much time a user spends on the social network. The tool called 'Your Time On Facebook' will show a user's summary of the time spent on the Facebook mobile app. This summary will be of seven days along with an average of how much time spent per day. The tool is unreleased but the aim is to curb the social media addiction. To think of a social media site, working on ways to put people off it, is all sorts of ironic.

Today even people from older age group are joining in the social media giant, thanks to the easy accessibility of smartphones and internet. While some may argue that the popularity of Facebook is going down, there is no denying that people do check and scroll on their timelines in their free time. The new tool will monitor data for a week and also set a limit for usage. It will apparently give an alert when you have crossed the self-set limit. It may next even change your notification settings on the platform so that you are not hooked back to checking them. Smartphone Addiction Survey: Nearly 70% Teenagers Wish to Curb Mobile Phone's Usage.

"We're always working on new ways to help make sure people's time on Facebook is time well spent," a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying by TechCrunch. Whether the feature will actually roll out is not yet clear. But today most of the Android and iOS devices do have a feature to monitor phone usage, Facebook seems to be following the route. Although we are not sure if it is beneficial in the larger run as it will drive people away from using the social media site, or at least reduce it considerably. Facebook had made changes in its algorithm as well. Youngsters are also looking forward to Facebook dating feature that was announced at the F8 Developer Conference.

While Facebook on one hand maybe wanting to help users to monitor the usage, the company does go out introducing attractive updates. They recently introduced Messenger Kids, a video calling and messaging app designed for children under 13 to families in Canada and Peru. The company said they wanted to promote 'responsible usage.' They also plan to make original new shows. These features are gripping to the very audience, whose usage they have to tab on.

In times when a need is expressed to reduce the social media usage, introduction of new features is in no way a solution. facebook's feature of 'Your Time On Facebook' will again in a way make people curious to know how much time they are actually spending on the site and thus check the site again. So it is really not a solution for a social media to curb its usage. These days we have competing apps which only divert the users from one platform to another but a special feature to monitor time spent on the app, may not really divert people from using it, lest curbing the smartphone usage.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 23, 2018 02:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).