Sometimes it feels like the people in charge of our favourite social media sites actively design them to be annoying. For instance, Twitter has an infuriating habit of refreshing the timeline while you’re in the middle of reading an interesting tweet, which is then lost forever in the deluge.
However, there is a way to stop it, spotted by @feyrah. It’s not intended for that, but it works nonetheless.
In either the Twitter mobile app or on web, go to Settings & Privacy, then Accessibility. In there, you’ll find a setting called ‘Reduce motion’. Turn it on, and Twitter will stop trying to distract your eyeballs from the tweets you literally use the site for.
As the text mentions, this will also stop the counter for likes and RTs from constantly updating, which in my opinion is a bonus — but some people might miss it.
To stop the auto-refresh, you want the setting to have a tick in the box, like this:
While you’re there, turn off video autoplay as well (just below this setting). I have absolutely no idea why so many people leave that on, but who wants videos playing without their consent?! Madness.
Main image by Solen Feyissa from Pexels