Social Media without Like count?

If you are checking your Instagram from Italy or Canada, you may notice that there is no like count. This is a new feature in Instagram being tested in 7 countries. As receiving a like would cause a dopamine rush making Instagram more addictive. As the apps we use compete for our attention time to increase their add revenue, Instagram chooses a less aggressive approach for a healthier environment for its users. Such drastic change might mean that people post less on Instagram as they receive less excitement from likes, hence Instagram is with this move favoring the well being of the user over the income it generates.

The change would greatly impact regular users, who do not achieve likes at the same level as a celebrity or influencer. Perhaps people would stop deleting pictures just because not enough people liked the picture. Maybe people would stop pretending they are the happiest and most Beautiful/Photoshopped version of them self. Pretending someone who you are not just makes them more depressed. Being surrounded by people who are pretending to be super happy just makes you envy and hope for the same happiness. It depresses to see people be much happier than you, when behind the scenes they are as depressed and lonely and broke as you are. Depressing enough that there exists apps and sites where you can fake a holiday and Photoshop your self in holiday pictures. Teenagers using Instagram would be less socially pressured to wear more and more revealing clothes, making Instagram more child friendly.

This would however also impact greatly influencers. These people make a living on the advertising of the products they use. The producers have a harder time paying them depending on the number of likes, hence the income of influencers will become more stable. When you see Youtubers, they often complain about creative burn out as Youtube pressures them to make more clickbaity thumbnails and titles and more watch time at a regular upload rate, where Youtubers get frustrated how Videos they thought they put in so much effort are not as well performing as videos that they thought were shitty. This can be frustrating as it means that your effort is not valued. Influencers would not feel as much this frustration anymore, and would be perhaps not demotivated with such realization.

I don't know how you feel about this update, but even though I don't use Instagram, I feel happy about it as Instagram does have a great influence on the people around me. It impacts on how much 13 year olds try to look like adults (sometimes very successfully). It impacts how willing people are interact and actually look up from their phone, as on the bus I see a number of people just scrolling pictures on Instagram, or check their performance on likes. I still dont trust Mark Zuckerberg with my data and a censored news feed and don't consider joining Facebook or Instagram. I still think it is a story that we should look at to self reflect on how much we use social media sites, how addicted we are, and if they have a negative impact on our life.