Instagram has considered hiding the likes of photos, so viewers cannot see how many people like individual posts. The company announced, Instagram is currently running a test that hides the number of likes and video views for some people in the following countries –
- Australia
- Brazil
- Canada
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- New Zealand
Once the new feature enabled, only users will be able to see their total likes it gets and their views for a post, but their followers will not. The ‘hide like counts’ feature was reported to be limited to Canada at first as a test for limited users.
Why does Instagram doing this?
According to a source, Instagram wants them to test the change because they want “your followers to focus on what you share, not how much you like your posts.” Only people who post photos will be able to see the number of likes received. We are expanding tests to several countries to get a better understanding of how that experience resonates with the global community of Instagram. “
A study described in 2017, Instagram as the social media platform that is most damaging to the mental health of young people. Research has shown that receiving notifications of smartphones, such as Instagram users see, sends a rush of the toxic flow to the brain. This phenomenon makes social media addictive and affects the brain like gambling. Social media has been linked to mental health problems among young people.
Although removing likes to face the public can result in users posting more authentic content and feeling less pressure on the platform, if you post a selfie that doesn’t get liked, it’s a terrible feeling, for example. It might hide that public counting will permit people to post more of the content they want to post, as opposed to photos that are guaranteed proper involvement.
People are extremely driven by rewards so they are still going to be competing for those likes. This is also great for teenagers as well as celebrities because it would no longer highlight the levels of elegance and popularity of themselves.
Of course, liking has become an effective way to assign value to user posts. More likes on posts usually point out that posts are more impressive than other users, which can enhance the self-esteem of some people while dropping others.
This news came after Instagram introduced many new tools and policies to prevent intimidation in the application. The website introduces a tool called restrictions that allows users to better control how other people contact them and interact with their accounts. Sounds great right! Just like the 1xbet mobile app for android offers its users to have fun with their win prediction of their favourite team. Although, one can find a lot of betting app in the market 1xbet mobile app is the most trusted and reliable.
Instagram also announced that they would now warn users when their account is at risk of being disabled. Moreover, some people praise this step because it can prevent self-esteem problems that arise due to lack of likes to post but On the other hand, some expressed concern about the way users are hidden can involve the income of influencers, most of who depend heavily on the amount to attract sponsors.