Instagram have announced that they are considering removing the visible ‘Likes’ on each post in an attempt to reduce the sense of competition amongst Instagram users.
This means that the profile owner will still be able to see how many people have liked their post, but it means that others won’t be able to. In theory this move should help to reduce the negative feeling associated with low performing posts and allow users to like a post because they want to and not because they have to.
The change would be a part of grander schemes being rolled out by all social media platforms to try and bring back these platforms to be what they were intended for.
Considering the social pressures of picture sharing sites like Instagram put on us everyday and the negative associations that social media has – cyber bullying for example, removing the ‘Likes’ should ease that pressure and remove some of the negative associations for many as people’s popularity would not be there for people to see and compare their own lives to.
Whether this change will be rolled out for all remains to be seen, however this alteration could change the dynamic of the content that we see on its platform. Instead of seeing posts that cater for the ‘likes’, we should see more posts that people simply want to share.
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Published: 12th May 2019