Social media can be a harsh mistress, particularly if you’re in the influencing realm. So much so that not enough likes can have an effect on your income or even mental health. Finally, the big players — Facebook and Instagram — have recognised this and given users the option to hide their “likes”. This reduces some of the pressures of the world of social media and maybe worth looking into but ultimately, the choice is yours:
We tested hiding like counts to see if it might depressurize people’s experience on Instagram. What we heard from people and experts was that not seeing like counts was beneficial for some, and annoying to others, particularly because people use like counts to get a sense for what’s trending or popular, so we’re giving you the choice.
The blog post issued across both platforms pages outlines how you can enable the feature for Instagram. It’s not as clear regarding Facebook instructions, but that will undoubtedly come with time.
The closing remarks of the post, noting the focus on improved experience on apps is positive. Showing that while the platforms do dominate many peoples online lives, it’s not just about monetisation.
