Have you ever posted a picture to Instagram and then deleted it because it didn’t get enough likes? If you won’t admit to it, many other people will. Instagram is well aware of the pervasive narcissism on its platform, and now it’s trying to get us all to calm down.
“We want people to worry a little bit less about how many likes they’re getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about,” said Adam Mosseri, head of product at Instagram, on Tuesday.
So the social network is going to test hiding likes on photos and views on videos in an effort to quell our egoistic tendencies. The test will begin this week in Canada, where users will not be able to see other people’s likes, and they’ll only be able to see their own by unhiding them.
Last fall, the Telegraph reported that Twitter was considering removing its “like” feature so users would have to retweet or move on. The social media platform never removed the feature, probably because people like the validation and businesses like the metrics, but its idea to generate more productive discourse by encouraging comments over likes was an interesting one.
When it comes to likes on Instagram, users have mixed reactions.
Instagram announced they gonna start testing in Canada hiding likes/views on pictures and videos from everybody but the uploader. It’s bout to be ENDGAME time for Instagram Models .
— DJ Akademiks (@Akademiks) May 1, 2019
Dear @twitter & @instagram Removing LIKES is dumb!
The game is, get views & get likes. If u remove the LIKES people will just play their favorite internet game on a different platform.
The people that think removing LIKES is a good idea are the people that dont get likes!
— KEEM ? (@KEEMSTAR) May 2, 2019
Instagram is doing a test in Canada by hiding likes from posts so you don’t see the amount of likes a post is getting but so you can appreciate the picture it self, I think it’s a great idea because people get affected by numbers so easily
— Kammeran Keola ⍟ (@kammeran1) May 2, 2019
The move could be good for users’ mental health, so that they don’t obsess over the arbitrary measurement of popularity. It could refocus users toward connecting “with the people that they care about,” as Mosseri said. Stepping away from “likes” may even discourage the epidemic of selfie deaths. Almost 260 people died taking selfies from 2011 to 2017, most snapping photos while engaging in risky behavior, often to gain likes and followers.
Or, the move could deprive businesses and influencers of useful metrics while just encouraging users to become Insta-paranoid in other ways. Ultimately, our capacity to engage well with social media is up to us as individual users. It’s not Instagram’s responsibility to save us from ourselves.
[Read more: Instagram is an oasis in the social media wasteland — for now]
