Instagram is limiting exposure to cyberbullies and it’s a good move.
Everyone at one point or another has been bullied on social media. Instagram is just the perfect place to be bullied as it is heavily reliant on photos. When you post a picture, most people are quick to comment and can easily troll you for no good reason. Instagram’s chief Adam Mosseri has always stated that they try to make Instagram as safe as possible for anyone on their platform. Most people on IG vary even in age so it is important to take safety very seriously. People should be able to express themselves and share their content without feeling scared of being trolled or ridiculed. Instagram has been testing out new changes such as hiding total likes which reduces the emphasis on social comparison and forces people to genuinely think about the content they actually put out.
The new feature that Instagram has rolled out will basically give you the chance to shut cyberbullies out completely. The new feature is called ‘restrict’ which will enable users to limit the exposure of certain users when the comment on their posts.
Here’s what Instagram had to say:
You can restrict someone by swiping left on a comment, through the Privacy tab in Settings, or directly on the profile of the account you intend to restrict. Once Restrict is enabled, comments on your posts from a person you have restricted will only be visible to that person. You can choose to view their comment by tapping “See Comment;” approve the comment so everyone can see it; delete it; or ignore it. You won’t receive any notifications for comments from a restricted account.
This will be perfect for content creators as well as they usually have a large audience that consistently interact with their content.
If your account is open and you notice that there are particular people who constantly troll you, you can easily restrict their comments. It is very similar to the ‘hide comment’ option on Facebook but the ‘restrict’ option may actually be better as other people would not even know that someone commented. The only issue would possibly come when someone notices that they have been restricted and the same person can actually create another account and do the same thing.
The question still remains, will it provide a better user experience?
On the flip side others would still insist that if you don’t want to be trolled then you just need to be mindful of what you post. At the same time, if you’re trying to be an influencer you can not always have fans who are positive about your work. If you’re working on being insta famous then you can hire someone who responds to your fans comments, alternatively you ask a close friend to do it for you if you get a lot of engagement. Some Instagram influencers claim that they never open their comments in fear of reacting negatively. Do you think this is a helpful option for Instagram?