Instagram Might Soon Hide ‘Like’ Count on Images So It Won’t Feel Like a ‘Competition’

For many of us, it is difficult to remember a time before Instagram.

What did we do with our free time? How did we survive waiting for buses? What did we do in the toilet?

Instagram is also a good place to find that daily dose of ego boost by refreshing our posts throughout the day to see:

• How many people liked our post
• Who liked it
• Who replied to our instastory. (Did my crush like my post? Or, remember feeling crushed that THAT person did not like your post?)

But All That’s Going To Change

In an effort to create a more fun and loving environment on Instagram, the platform is going to pilot test taking away the ‘like count’ feature in the land of maple trees.

This is to create a less pressurizing platform for people. How they will carry this out is by taking away the number of likes on a post but keeping the ability to scroll through who have liked the photo.

To find out the number of people who liked the photos, one would have to manually count the number of likes. (Who got time for that!)

Likes are not always that bad! Remember when the world came together to make the world egg record and reached 53.4 million likes for an egg?!

I am proud to say that I was part of this groundbreaking historical event.

The like count function is not always bad as it can be used to show that many people believe in a good cause and could be the place where change begins! #SharksShouldBeInTheSeaNotSoups

That being said, the effort made to make Instagram a less pressurizing platform to be on should be celebrated. It is important to take care of our mental health and not be too obsessed with what people around us think of us. #buildpeopleupnotwalls

The pressure of social media

Many artists have spoken up over the years about the bullying that they face online and how pressurizing it can be.

Taylor Swift shared in her write up for Elle magazine that one of the “30 things she learnt before turning 30” is that Instagram can become a place where people seek for approval for what they are about to do. Also, Taylor finally learnt to turn off comments on her photos so as to shut out the hateful comments.

Going Forward

Social media is a thing of the 21st century and is still undergoing development to make it a safer place for all its users. Let us come together to spread awareness that we are not defined by the number of likes that we have on our posts, but our character.

I would LIKE to see where this goes!

#willitsucceed #mentalhealth #likepostshare #me #popz #nofriends #bojio