This Is What You Need To Know About Facebook's New Snooze Feature To Avoid Drama
Facebook has taken a lot of heat this year, and when you log on, it's easy to see why. As useful as the social networking site is, there's one huge issue that often overshadows its positive traits: clutter. Between the status updates, promoted ads, notifications, and messages popping up, Facebook can often feel overwhelming. Thankfully, on Dec. 15, the website introduced the Snooze feature, which allows you to essentially mute someone's posts for 30 days. Snoozing is very useful, but has left users with one major question: do people know if you snooze them on Facebook? After all, you don't exactly want people to know you have them snoozed. Or maybe you do, in which case, way harsh, Tai.
The short answer is no. People, pages, and groups will not know if you have snoozed them. Although unconfirmed by Facebook, The Independent reports that anyone you choose to snooze "won't know what you've done." I also performed a little experiment (it's called user testing, people) and snoozed some of my Facebook friends. When I asked if they received any sort of notification or other indication that I had snoozed them, they all said no. This is good news for those of us who are trying to get a break from some of our friends or pages without hurting anyone's feelings. But if you're trying to send a more clear message, it's probably best to go with a classic unfriend or a block.
If snoozing seems like the best option for you, and you've already got someone in mind that you'd like to use the tool for (no judgments here), it's super simple to do. When a friend, page, or group's content shows up in your News Feed, click on the ellipses in the top right corner of their post, where you would normally go to hide a post or unfollow. Now, you can select "Snooze [name] for 30 days," for some more temporary relief. It's important to note that you cannot go to someone's page and snooze them from there; it can only be done in your News Feed at this time.
You might be wondering what makes this tool any better than the unfollow tool, and that's a fair point. The Snooze tool's biggest benefit, in my opinion, is that it allows you to avoid making any rash decisions about the content you want to see or not see in your News Feed. By giving you a short, specific time span in which to snooze someone's posts, Facebook is almost offering a probationary period, instead of something more serious that you could wind up regretting. Typically, when I'm tempted to unfollow or unfriend someone, it's because I'm feeling some type of way about something that they've posted. But those options are pretty permanent. The only way to come back from unfriending someone is to request them again (no thanks), and if you unfollow someone, you wind up missing out on a ton of updates, unless you remember to go back and re-follow them after you've cooled off which, in my experience, is unlikely to happen.
But according to The Independent, with the Snooze feature, you'll get a notification just before the 30 days is up, reminding you that posts from that friend will soon begin to re-appear in your News Feed. From there, you might want to check out the person's page and their recent posts and decide if you want to let the Snooze run out, or maybe consider unfollowing them (or unfriending, if it's that bad). Also, if in the middle of the 30 days you find yourself wanting to see posts from the account again, you can undo the snooze at any time by visiting their page and selecting "End Snooze" from the drop down menu under "Snoozed." You can also use this button to check how much longer the snooze period will last.
So there you have it, an easy way to avoid content you don't want to see, without hurting anybody's feelings. Happy Snoozing!
Check out the entire Gen Why series and other videos on Facebook and the Bustle app across Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV.
