Instagram is gearing up to hide the \u201clike counts\u201d. This is something we all know. But will it make the platform more desirable? Will it result in a healthier social space?<\/p>\n
We do need answers to the above questions, as Instagram is executing test runs in parts of Australia, Ireland, and Brazil, among other regions.<\/p>\n
As per the popular platform, the idea behind hiding \u201clike counts\u201d is to give due respect to users\u2019 well-being. It wants people to genuinely connect with their followers and the ones they follow, by exchanging stories instead of getting anxious or insecure by one another\u2019s \u201clike counts\u201d.<\/p>\n
Therefore this can be a significant step towards reducing social comparison.<\/p>\n
Actually yes. As per many surveys, Instagram<\/a> is one of the worst social media platforms, when it comes to the well-being of users. The quality of the feed has continuously deteriorated, and the crappiest of posts are getting thousands and thousands of likes, thanks to Russian Bots.<\/p>\n This fake popularity is resulting in social comparisons among users, and they are becoming prone to anxiety and depression, among other issues.<\/p>\n As per a study conducted by The Royal Society For Public Health in the UK, young users of Instagram are developing a despairing attitude, where they are undermining their own lives while looking at \u201cthousands-of-likes\u201d laden posts of other users.<\/p>\n Most of these young users are removing their posts and pictures out of frustration. They might even develop an anti-social behavior or low-self esteem, who knows?<\/p>\n If we keep all this in mind, then hiding \u201cLike Counts\u201d seems to be a wise step. \u201cLikes\u201d can be bought without breaking a sweat, therefore, \u201cNumber of likes\u201d cannot be passed as social proof.<\/p>\n That being said, it\u2019s not just “likes” that negatively influence users. Some of the posts or images themselves cause a lot of harm to a user\u2019s well-being. But then, you can\u2019t hide the entire platform, can you?<\/p>\n For obvious reasons, Influencers aren\u2019t welcoming the move. Let\u2019s cut them some slack, as their business is at stake. But how will they modify their business now? This is an important question.<\/p>\n Currently, influencers pitch their reach to brands, by showing the number of likes they garner. This is how brands assess various influencers. Therefore, someone with millions of followers but only a few likes on his or her posts, can\u2019t claim to be an influencer.<\/p>\n But with this move, the metric to assess influencers will change. Number of followers that an influencer has and the number of comments or shares his or her posts are getting will become more relevant now. This should be the way forward for influencers.<\/p>\n According to Laura Albertin, an influencer having more than 188,000 followers, once the “likes” are hidden, people will have to look for other alternatives for social validation, like followers, comments, and shares.<\/p>\n Other the other hand, there are influencers who are skeptical of the changes made. According to them, the changes will hurt the business in the long run, as brands will keep finding different yardsticks, and it will be difficult for influencers to catch up.<\/p>\n Definitely, it is. There is no doubt that every “well-being” practitioner will be in support of this move by Instagram.<\/p>\n But how will it change users\u2019 approach towards posts on their feed? By not seeing any number of likes on a post, will users feel more compelled to like it or will it be just the opposite?<\/p>\n If it leads to more number of likes, then for sure, Instagram won\u2019t reverse the change.<\/p>\n Instagram<\/a> has already made it clear that it\u2019s worth the risk (people might deviate from Instagram to other social platforms) if the move can result in a healthier environment for people.<\/p>\n It\u2019s good to see their commitment towards ensuring users’ well-being, even at the risk of facing a potential drop in popularity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Instagram is gearing up to hide the \u201clike counts\u201d. This is something we all know. But will it make the platform more desirable? Will it result in a healthier social space? We do need answers to the above questions, as Instagram is executing test runs in parts of Australia, Ireland, and Brazil, among other regions. As per the popular platform, the idea behind hiding \u201clike counts\u201d is to give due respect to users\u2019 well-being. It wants people to genuinely connect with their followers and the ones they follow, by exchanging stories instead of getting anxious or insecure by one another\u2019s \u201clike counts\u201d. Therefore this can be a significant step towards reducing social comparison. Is Instagram right in citing users’ well-being? Actually yes. As per many surveys, Instagram is one of the worst social media platforms, when it comes to the well-being of users. The quality of the feed has continuously deteriorated, and the crappiest of posts are getting thousands and thousands of likes, thanks to Russian Bots. This fake popularity is resulting in social comparisons among users, and they are becoming prone to anxiety and depression, among other issues. As per a study conducted by The Royal Society For Public … <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1560,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1131],"tags":[1391,1051,1390],"yst_prominent_words":[1388,119,1385,1048,1381,800,1034,1382,1387,478,1379,199,29,1046,1380,264,224,1383,1386,1384],"class_list":["post-1559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-influencers","tag-instagram","tag-instagram-likes","post_format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1559"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2623,"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559\/revisions\/2623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1559"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hestabit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What are influencers saying?<\/h2>\n
Is it worth the experiment?<\/h2>\n