Recently, there has been an increase in complaints about the default settings that social networks install on user accounts for one explicit purpose, which is the benefit of these companies from the information provided by these settings.

These settings, such as location tracking, may be useful for some applications such as the delivery app, but they are much less useful to the user on social media than they are for these platforms.

But is there a way to change these settings to work for us as users?

In a report published by the American Wall Street Journal (WSJ), writer Jonah Stern said that most people do not change the default settings in social media applications or any other applications.

For example, changing the like setting and video views on Instagram can make the difference between a healthy social media environment and a toxic environment that has a negative impact on mental health, especially for children.

And not just this setting, the ready-made social media settings keep you connected to your feeds and share your personal data.

Many of these default settings benefit Facebook more than the user.

According to the report, Facebook spokesman Joe Osborne initially refused to comment on the problem with the default settings in the company's applications, but after testing the Hide Likes setting on Instagram on a group of users, some of them found that hiding likes is beneficial for mental health, so the company published in May that it The option is given to the user if they wish to change the default setting.

And in two subsequent sessions in Congress, lawmakers asked about how Facebook and Instagram worked, specifically the ways in which apps and algorithms were designed to connect younger generations.

The writer says that many lawmakers have argued that the tactics of these platforms are similar to those of the big tobacco companies to promote their goods.

The report says that unlike cigarettes, social media has real benefits, but its drawbacks are bad enough that a large group of people across the political spectrum agree that solutions are needed to stop this ill effect.

It turns out that some of these solutions are already on our phones, but have been buried away or turned off.

But what if the laws changed that?

And companies forced to give users the freedom to change settings?

Many lawmakers have argued that social media tactics are similar to those of big tobacco companies to promote their merchandise (Shutterstock)

Reduce addiction

What would a non-addictive social media app look like?

Just read the Children's Internet Design and Safety Act - also known as the KIDS Act - which aims to protect people aged 16 and under from manipulative marketing techniques, dangerous design features and malicious algorithms.

In one of its articles, the law states that “we have to ban push notifications, we have to block automation, and we have to ban the kinds of marketing tools that these platforms are using at the moment.”

The report says that anyone who wants to take a break from the endless waterfall of social media knows that disabling some of these features can help stop addiction, but first you need to know how to change these settings.

For example, did you know that you can pause all Instagram notifications for up to 8 hours in the app?

You can do this by going to Settings > Notifications and tapping on Pause all.

Select Algorithms

The report explains how algorithms operate and rank posts in our accounts.

For years, Facebook and others have moved away from time feeds, which sort posts from newest to oldest.

Now what we see is arranged by computer systems that use our personal data and habits, to decide which content will be most attractive to us.

This is not always a bad thing.

You don't have to put up with hundreds of posts that can be boring, but these same systems can spread bad content and misinformation.

Facebook offers a "recent" or timeline feed, and gives you the option to turn off the default setting, but despite the company's efforts to improve it, the setting on the iPhone is still hard to access, and doesn't work as intended.

Instagram also doesn't offer a chronological alternative to feed, and on TikTok, next to the addictive algorithm-powered For You feed, there's the Next feed that shows only the accounts you follow.

Even in this feed, TikTok is still using algorithms to show you the videos it thinks you'll want to watch the most.

The report finds that user selection of controls alone will not solve the problem of algorithm amplification, so some lawmakers are pushing to further regulate the algorithms themselves, and review Section 230 of the Electronic Publishing Act, the law that protects online platforms from being liable for harmful content posted on their sites.

The Justice Against Malicious Algorithms Act, introduced last week, is the most recent example.


Limit data collection

The report states that in the Instagram app, if you go to Settings, then Ads, and tap Data about your activity from partners, you'll likely find information shared with Facebook ad providers.

This means that in the background, Facebook uses data about you from other apps, websites, and even the real world to determine which ads to relate to.

Similar settings are enabled in TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat.

The report says some newly proposed national privacy laws want to change practices like these.

The Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act, introduced by Representative Susan Delbiny, is based on knowing which default settings in your social media applications will be most beneficial to you or your family?

For children, Senator Ed Markey and Senator Bill Cassidy have reintroduced the Children and Adolescent Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA 2.0, that would expand existing privacy protections for 13 to 15-year-olds, By completely blocking ads intended for children.

The question that the report raises is: What steps will we see in the future to stop these practices?

“I would be shocked if this Congress could pass a sweeping federal privacy law,” says Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of Accountable Tech, a progressive nonprofit organization dedicated to controlling social media giants. KidsAct directly targets those manipulative features."