As I was scrolling through Facebook a couple days ago, I saw a link that someone shared to their timeline. The title of the article was "The CEO of Instagram is taking away likes". My first reaction to that was "Oh no, why?" I was confused as to why they wanted to take away likes from Instagram. I thought about it for a while and my opinion changed. I realized that by doing this will be beneficial for people. Its time to live in a world again where our focus doesn't revolve around likes. I am sick having this thought in the back of my mind that my social media isn't "good" enough. I feel embarrassed even saying that. I go through my Instagram and look and see how many likes each photo gets and if a photo doesn't have enough likes, I will archive it. Instagram users will be experiencing an app without the focus on likes and I think this is truly going to be the best for people. Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram decided to hide likes to followers for a little bit. He is doing it as a social experiment to see how people react to not seeing likes on their pictures. Living in a world without likes? I cant relate. Ever since middle school, that I can remember, likes have been a big influence for not just me but peers in my classes. Social medias biggest flaw is obsession with how many likes you get on your photo or status which is why Adam is trying to make a point and disappearing likes from photos for a couple months to create less pressurized society.
https://www.newsweek.com/instagram-ceo-announces-likes-will-disappear-us-accounts-starting-next-week-1470755
What makes me think in the back of my mind about Instagram taking away likes is, what is all of these Instagram influencers going to do? Their job is to post and promote brands on Instagram, they practically live off of likes. What are they going to do now? There is definitely people out there who are making thousands of dollars off of likes on their Instagram posts. What also makes me think is the people who buy/bought their likes and followers are the ones who are the fools now. All of those influencers must feel stupid knowing they wasted all of their money for fake accounts to give them clout. All of this is about clout and doing posts for the "people" and catering to their likes. What I mean by that is they try and get as much attention as they possibly can to please everyone. The goal is to get attention to their posts and how many likes they get on your picture is important for them. People are obsessed with the number of likes each of their pictures gets and taking away likes on Instagram is going to be a culture shock for most. We will just have to wait and see how our society reacts to this.
When I think about Instagram getting rid of likes, it is an uncomfortable feeling. Initially, I feel like what is the point of posting on social media anymore. In my head, I need to know who and how many people are liking my social media posts. I know why Instagram is doing this. Yet, I feel like they want to keep people using the app, and creating profiles with it they shouldn't make huge changes. Although if it does turn out to work well, then maybe it will be an even bigger hit and it can also promote better mental health. Also, I feel like I would be less likely to check my phone continuously after posting. It can be beneficial in many ways, but it could also affect the app negatively. The negative sides of this can be that people stop using the app, or like you said what would happen to the Instagram influencers? Will that be an exception to the expirement? I have so many questions about how this is going to work out and if they are doing an experimental phase which accounts are they going to do this too? A select bit of them or all of them? Maybe Instagram should make it an option that you can choose between. You can choose to see the likes on your pictures or if you don't want to see them.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like it could go a few ways: either people will have a more negative "wtf, not again" reaction and decrease their app usage or they'll feel some relief about people not just liking their picture so someone else will like it - but I know people can still see the number of likes they got on their picture, so maybe it won't make that much of a difference. Likes have never really been a big thing for me; I think as long as I like what I posted, I'll keep it on my page until I do an "Instagram weed-through" and delete some of the pictures, but I do get the appeal of taking the numbers out of the equation.
ReplyDeleteI like that you brought up how it will affect influencers. I saw a Tweet the other day (that of course I now can't seem to find) about just that, but it was less about the popular, typical influencers and more about the independent creators, small businesses, and people trying to promote things they make or do themselves - art, clothing, makeup artistry, etc. - and I do think that while the intention of taking away likes is more based on intentions surrounding the improvement of self esteem, it could definitely affect these creators in a negative way.
I heard about this a couple of months ago from a Facebook article as well. Personally, I think it is a good idea. So many people worry about likes and getting enough likes on pictures, sometimes even deleting pictures because it didn't get a lot of likes compared to their other posts. To me, it makes no sense. The way that I view Instagram is that it is like a digital photo album. I put in all the pictures of things, people, and/or memories that make me happy so I can go back and remember those times. Who cares if one post got 75 likes and another only got 20? What's important to me are the memories I can go back and relive.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see what will happen to Instagram influencers. It wasn't something that I had thought about before. They make so much money off of posting a picture advertising a brand and getting likes on that or those pictures. I wonder if this Instagram without likes social experiment turns into a permanent thing, will the accounts that are sponsored by influencers will somehow compensate the influencers or something else along those lines.
I had never even considered the idea of a social media site getting rid of the like button. It has been around ever since I can remember, ever since like sixth grade when I made my Facebook account. The idea of getting likes is practically ingrained in the world of social media and has become a complete norm in the online world. Half the reason people post content is to see how many likes they will get, and who will see it and what not. Doing this could disrupt their user base, whether it’s for bad or for good is up to how the people react. I would imagine that many people would be upset by this, especially Instagram influencers like you mentioned. People literally make a living off of sharing content on Instagram, and removing the option to like said content could negatively affect those influencer’s careers.
ReplyDeleteI personally don’t need a like button. One of the primary reasons I enjoy Snapchat so much is because there is no need to worry about likes, or comments, or arguments in the comments section, or anything like that. If I post something on my story and somebody wants to talk about what I posted they can send my story back to me with a private comment. I prefer this style of social media than the latter, so maybe it would be beneficial to remove likes. But no matter who you’re talking too there are going to be two sides to the story because nothing is as black and white as it seems. Some people “need” likes and others would like to do without the societal pressure of impressing your peers with a number of likes.
I personally think this idea of no likes is a great idea. At the same time, people make a living off of Instagram based off of how many likes they get. These people will no longer be making money if likes go away, unless Instagram has a secret way of seeing the like count still. There are many Instagram models and influencers who use Instagram as a place for work.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have never really cared about likes but it does feel nice when you see you get a lot. I know many people who are going to be very not ok without likes because that is what they live for which is sad.
To say the least, it will be interesting to see this new Instagram life and I am ready for it to begin. I think this will help prevent a lot of mental illness and stop making so many people feel so bad about themselves just because some silly likes that really mean nothing in the world.