Till now, the worth of the Instagram post is decided by the number of likes and comments. Some people feel disheartened the moment they see fewer likes on their posts. Some feel exasperated about the way Instagram works, as people judge or consider someone "popular" by the number of likes they get on their post, but not by the content they share.
Now Facebook owned Instagram decided to hide like counts from the public view to reduce the pressure among the people on social media. Since April, Instagram has been working on the process of hiding likes in some parts of the countries like - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Ireland, Italy, and Brazil. CEO Adam Mosseri stated, they'll roll-out by testing the same in the U.S from next week onwards.
The idea of doing this is very simple. Instagram is a place where we see people of all ages. According to EMarketer - In 2018, 31.8% use Instagram in the U.S, which is equal to 104.7 million people. As per the estimates for 2018-2022, this number rose up by 13.1% when compared to 2017 figures, which includes people of age groups 35 and older, connecting with their family members or likely younger ones.
So, Instagram decided to cut-out the level of competition and make users focus more on the post they shared it online. You might still view the likes you got on your post, but, you couldn't able to see the number of likes on other posts. By doing this, the people, especially young ones, feel relieved from anxiety and social pressure. Also, this helps users to focus more on the content one has posted rather than just double-tapping, swiping and forgetting it.
Yet, it is fascinating to know the metrics and stats for the post, but, mental health is one such thing, which is going rounds on social media. And sometimes it's improbable to see some posts which lack good content have more likes than the content which is very important to look at and socialize. 'Paid or fake likes' is one of the substantial reasons, where users pay the cost of a dollar to earn likes on their post. This seemed illegitimate on the part of social media and also unreliable for certain things.
Previously, Instagram took to twitter and said, "We want your friends to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get. You can still see your likes by tapping on the list of people who've liked it, but your friends will not be able to see how many likes your post has received".
Isn't it too early to come up with a conclusion that hidden like counts would influence people's mental state positively? But one thing is for sure - this move by Instagram will make users feel healthier and fairer. Also, it creates an amiable impact on having better conversations.
