We’ve all been there: you’re scrolling through Twitter, minding your own business, when all of a sudden your timeline is flooded with someone or something you don’t want anything to do with.
Whether it’s a celebrity you’re tired of hearing about or even just an obnoxious Twitter trend, the mute function can be your absolute savior.
For example, I have Ariana Grande’s Twitter account muted because my timeline is jam-packed with people retweeting her spam-like tweets. I don’t want to block her, because that seems too aggressive, so muting is the perfect solution.
I also have a few people muted I know in real life. Specifically, people I don’t know well enough to actively follow and care about, but people I do know well enough that it would be rude if I unfollowed them.
It keeps my timeline relevant to my interests without hurting anyone’s feelings–it’s a win-win situation.
But muting goes even further than just accounts.
I’ve had the Twenty One Pilots fan base muted for a long time. It has not only saved me from the band’s very own weird, cryptic tweets, but it has also saved me from the “clique.”
In addition to muting the band and its members’ accounts, I have also muted the fans’ frequently used phrases, like “tøp” and “clique.”
This comes in handy especially since I have close friends who are big Twenty One Pilots fans. Rather than just unfollowing or muting them completely, I can filter their tweets so I don’t see what I’m not interested in.
Muting large trends that are getting a little out of hand is another excellent use of the mute function.
For example, the “unpopular opinion” trend–which is really just popular opinions, but that’s not the point–is flooding my timeline at the moment, and the mute function is best possible way to fix it. You just go into settings, go under content preferences, add your word(s) and bam: you’ll never see another (un)popular opinion about potato salad or Diet Coke ever again.
Mute functions are also available on sites like Facebook and Instagram, and they function essentially the same as that of Twitter.
The mute button truly is a life-saver. It keeps your feed filtered to your interests and helps your content stay relevant, and does wonders for your mental health.
