Recently Instagram launched a new feature where it now hides the likes on everyone’s pictures. While the account user is able to see the exact number of likes they will get on a post, their followers are unable to see it. Their followers may be able to see generally how many people have liked it, if there is a large number of people who have liked it. For example, celebrities’ pictures will show “liked by thousands”. Other than that, anyone looking at someone else’s pictures won’t be able to see the actual amount of likes that the post garners.
Instagram revealed that the reason they had decided to remove likes was because it was a step they were taking in order to help with young people’s mental health. By removing the ability to see likes, it allows everyone to post on the platform without feeling any pressure to gain likes or feel as if they’re under pressure to perform well amongst their peers.
While many young people may feel like they need to hit some type of invisible expectations, there are still many who were against the initial decision. Many ‘social media influencers’ were up in arms about this new feature. Influencers were able to get sponsorships through Instagram because many companies could see how popular they are. Now, many influencers have become worried that this new feature will make it harder for them to earn money as they once had before.
Influencers also argued that Instagram had an ulterior motive for this new feature, and that the real reason was because Instagram could not make any profit from the private deals that were made between influencers and companies. Now, without having a way to see if these influencers had an active audience of potential customers Instagram could use this to their advantage. Now Instagram would be able to become the middleman for these sponsorships and thus make money from their users sponsorship or advertisement deals.
In general, it’s hard for us general users to know what the real reason for removing “likes” was. After all, even if your followers can’t see your like count with this current feature, we as individual users are still able to look at how many likes we ourselves get. If the goal is to feel less pressure from always having to get a lot of likes on all of your social media, then maybe this is still not the answer. There have been studies that show there could be a connection between social media and depression, or other mental health issues. If this is the case, then maybe something such as completely removing likes would be a better solution.
Time will tell if this will be something that Instagram will decide to keep. We will also have to wait and see to figure out how this will effect social media users, for the outcomes could change how other popular social media sites operate as well. Additionally, we’ll have to wait to see if this was truly done on our behalf, or just as a way for Instagram to make a profit.
Sandy
Vocabulary
garner (verb) – to gather or collect something, such as information, support or approval
be up in arms (idiom) – to be very angry about something and ready to protest about it
ulterior motive (noun) – the real reason for doing something that is kept hidden or secret
sponsorship (noun) – financial support from a person or organization
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