On Facebook, obviously, we want to socialize. That includes communicating with others, making new friends, or just getting updates from those we care.
However, not everyone there post things that interest us. Some of those friends of ours, can occasionally share things that aren't suited to our taste. Those posts combined, may clutter our News Feed, making Facebook experience a lot worse that it already is.
"Seeing too many photos of your uncle's new cat? Is your friend tempting you with endless photos of ramen on her Japan trip? It turns out, you’re not alone," wrote Facebook product manager Shruthi Muraleedharan in an announcement blog post.
Facebook would prefer that we don’t unfriend our old time friends. This is why the social network giant is releasing a feature that makes it possible to temporarily shut those people up.
Calling the feature 'Snooze', what it does, is to temporarily unfollow someone, a Page or group, for 30 days. Without banning them altogether, Snoozing will stop Facebook from showing their posts on your feed.
People you mute this way won't get notified of it, and you will get a notification once a mute is about to expire. Here you have the option to get some peace of mind for another 30 days, or allow those pesky posts to once again occupy your feed.
This small change, is a major one. Especially because the social network is facing a growing criticism about how the largest social platform has serious negative psychological effects for users.
Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives have also been talking about building and connecting communities on Facebook.
As the company is shifting its focus towards group networking, it has to figure out how to make those groups work with its News Feed, which was originally built for following updates from individuals.
And here, the mute 'Snooze' feature should come in handy for users that want to participate in groups, but don't want to be overwhelmed by them.
Facebook has been testing the feature for a few months, before making it available for all users.