On hiding those likes.
For some it’s a disaster, for others a step in the right direction. Over the last 2 years, Instagram has been testing how the (in)visibility of likes affects user behaviour.
The new feature has been available in Austria for a few weeks now and so users of the social media platform can hide the number of Instagram Likes on all posts they see in their feed.
But what are the advantages of the disappearance of Likes for companies and users?
For some time now, criticism of Instagram and especially the content on the social media platform has been growing louder. By now, it’s well known what kind of content is well received, what the perfect picture looks like — in short: what gets the most likes on Instagram.
There is less and less room for individuality and/or content with added value. Now Instagram is delivering the paradigm shift that many have been eagerly awaiting.
The focus will be more on content and less on metrics again. Removing Likes from the platform could significantly change the way many businesses and creators use Instagram.
The focus would (hopefully) return to the essentials:
Content and Community.
In addition, Instagram without likes offers several other advantages for users, companies and creators:
- Bot providers and like sellers would no longer have a lobby. Instagram would therefore become more honest and authentic in the long run.
- If users are no longer measured by likes, this could motivate them to post more, as the “shame” of a low like count would disappear.
- Influencers measured by likes would become creators measured by the quality and originality of their content.
- Companies and creators were spared optimisations for the perfect posting time or the perfect number of hashtags.
- Without the pressure to get lots of likes, entirely new narrative forms and formats could emerge.
If Instagram hid Likes — completely — the platform could possibly change for the better in the long run. Instagram would become more authentic, more human, more spontaneous again and therefore return to its roots. The community would come to the fore again. And after all, that’s what a social network is all about, isn’t it?
The removal of Likes on Instagram is definitely a big and drastic step — after all, Likes are what the social media platform has been about since hour one. But the function could help content creators to focus again on what content they share and less on what brings the most likes. However, as is often the case, there is also a big but: since the platform allows its users to choose whether they want to hide or show Instagram Likes, the effect might not be as big as initially thought. By consistently removing all Like ads, it would have been possible to hide the entire market of purchased Likes and interactions. But perhaps this step will follow in the future.
As of now, I haven’t really noticed a lot of companies and people using the feature on Instagram, so I’m really curious to see how the Instagram landscape and its users will develop, if the new feature has any impact at all and how the content on the platform is going to evolve.
Read more about “a life without likes” in this Forbes article.
