Why muting is a ‘quiet revolution’

By Sydney Sims, Georgia Health Reporter Fellowship

While it may seem like everybody is dragged (a form of cyberbulling) on social media these days, there's a simple way to silence the noise: muting.

Keren Landman, M.D., senior health reporter for Vox and an epidemiologist, said she discovered the value of muting when she was personally dragged on social media.

Muting is like a silent super power, Landman told attendees during her lightning talk at Health Journalism 2024 last month. "Muting is … reshaping social media into a resource that makes you stronger without the conflict and distraction that is so weakening [to] our social fabric. Muting is a quiet revolution."

One of the key advantages of the mute feature is its discretion, she explained. Unlike blocking, which notifies the blocked account, potentially escalating tension, muting is silent, Landman said. She added that it can help keep the peace on your timeline and help reporters avoid conflict or potential fallout of a hard block.

"Muting them lets you ignore them completely without giving them the satisfaction of knowing that you even saw the stupid words they typed."

Landman also said muting on social media can empower journalists to create boundaries without severing connections.

"We are human, and it's hard to do all of this when you're confronted with more of somebody's opinions than of their real world selves," she says. "Muting these people helps you ignore the parts of them that are driven by the platform's sorcery and preserve your real world relationship without making them feel cut off."

How to mute

Muting can work several ways. You can mute someone so their content doesn't appear on your feed. Or, you can also mute terms or words that you don't want to see on your Twitter timeline. To mute someone or an organization on Twitter, go to the profile page, then click the three dots icon and select mute. You can also mute specific posts.

On Instagram, you can mute stories, notes and posts, depending on which vessel is creating the overload. And, in the most dire situations, you can mute all notifications from the selected app to create a temporary amnesty period. To mute someone you're following, click on "following" under the username, then select "mute"(Check out this Wired article for step-by-step muting instructions.)

Sydney Sims is the youth and education reporter for Capital B News, Atlanta. She is also a 2024 AHCJ- Georgia-based Health fellow.