An Instagram without likes is an article I found on Forbes that caught my attention. For a while it’s been a big topic about the negative impact social media is having on today's generation and this testing by Instagram is definitely a step in the right direction.
The test is about showing posts without the number of likes on display. Apparently, this idea was put into action to create "a less pressurized environment where people feel comfortable expressing themselves."
However, the like count is still visible to the user which I feel isn't really resolving the problem. It's not just about who sees' how many likes you get but its also a self-esteem issue on people wondering why they haven't got as many likes as wanted or expected so keeping the like to be viewed by the user is still feeding the issue.
Furthermore, another issue regarding Instagram and its pressures is the amount of followers people have. By removing the amount of likes issue will naturally go towards the amount of followers people have.
Although its a positive change from Instagram, being one of the biggest social media platform feeding this issue, I feel that they need to address the issue in a bit more depth and not just focus on removing the liked for the public but to remove them all-together and also thinking about the view of followers.
Furthermore, many people may argue and say the real issue starts from within, a self -esteem issue. Whilst to an extent that is true, platforms like Instagram developed low self- esteem by promoting and rooting for users who create this high expectation of false reality. By tackling the likes, followers and putting more techniques in place is a good start to handling this issue, I just hope they do think more into these tests and actions before putting them into place.
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