“Instagram finally has a mute button,” I excitedly announced to the Stylist office when the news dropped.

“What for?” quizzed one of my colleagues.

“You know… for when you want to hide someone annoying from your timeline,” I explained. She was nonplussed.

“Why don’t you just unfollow them?”

It is the great question of our time. Why, when someone is irritating you on social media, needling at your being with content so banal you want to seize them by the shoulders, stare deep into their soul and scream “WHITE WALLS AND AN ARTFULLY PLACED SUCCULENT DO NOT A BLOGGER MAKE,” do you not just press the button designed for such an occasion? Go nuclear. Unfollow.

Because, as with everything else in life, it’s just not that simple. Look, I’ll show you. Le’ts play a game of hypothetical:

1) A friend has posted her 13th blurry picture in the last 24 hours of her new schnauzer puppy, Ralph. It’s mostly snout, as have been the previous 10. “Hope you like doggos because there’s going to be a LOT of pics,” she has written in the caption, alongside the hashtag #notsorry. Ralph is going to live a long and happy life. Lovingly documented.

Unfollow: there’ll be plenty of opportunities to meet Ralph at the park.

2) A former co-worker you were close to – as in, post-work drinks at Kettners and confessions about that adulterous kiss on a Hvar mini-break close – is documenting the step-by-step renovations of the three-bed she bought after migrating to one of the Shires. Sometimes she runs polls on Insta Stories. “Walk in shower or claw foot bath?” she asks. You see it just before transferring this month’s rent for your four-person flatshare.

Unfollow, especially if you’re London based.

3) Your cousin has children.

Like a puppy, but 10 times worse. You know what you must do. Push. The. Button.

“I’m happy to unfollow accounts,” says Emma, 30. “A few months ago, in the pursuit of mindfulness, I had a proper follow cleanse and deleted the over-sharers and the folks I don’t keep in touch with in real life. My feed has become a lot better as a result.” In cases like Emma’s, unfollowing can be a tool for a clearer mind, especially if you’re ridding your timeline of toxic people or lost loves. It’s healthy, positive and uncomplicated.

Why an Instagram mute button is essential in the age of social media sensitivity