Remember the days before Instagram was ridden with #ads? Or when posts came rolling in chronological order? Good times.
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As with any other social platform, Instagram has certainly seen its fair share of changes over the years, but these days it seems like people are vying for the likes and attention above anything else, leading to issues like fake followers and bot accounts.
In an effort to transform the experience to focus on the posts rather than the attention around them, Instagram recently rolled out a test to selected users in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand to hide their total number of likes and video views.
We’re currently running a test that hides the total number of likes and video views for some people in the following countries:
— Instagram (@instagram) July 17, 2019
✅ Australia
✅ Brazil
✅ Canada
✅ Ireland
✅ Italy
✅ Japan
✅ New Zealand pic.twitter.com/2OdzpIUBka
We want your friends to focus on the photos and videos you share, not how many likes they get. You can still see your own likes by tapping on the list of people who've liked it, but your friends will not be able to see how many likes your post has received.
— Instagram (@instagram) July 17, 2019
It is uncertain when this feature will be rolled out to Malaysia (granted, we still can’t add music in our Instagram story, so we might have to wait awhile), but the internet has definitely responded with what they think.
Influencers once Instagram hides the likes on their posts and they’re rendered useless and have to get a job at Sweetgreens pic.twitter.com/L3LLFxPRHX
— marianne williamson outsold (@kaypeaux) July 17, 2019
Idk why everyone's complaining about this. I love the idea! It's healthy esp. for the younger generation who mostly thinks that their worth depends on the amount of likes they get. And sometimes do stupid things just to get stupid likes. #instagramlikes pic.twitter.com/uViu9zINwt
— Angelica (@KhunTae1621) July 18, 2019
This would be better if it was optional. Those who want to hide their likes can have the option to hide them, those who don’t want to wont need to. You already give us this option for comments, why not likes?
— Elizabeth Villalobos (@_elizabethdrea) July 18, 2019
What about the people using it for income? The people who work hard creating content, to then have their hard work not praised/not shown how successful it was to others?? Instead the app ruins the quality and doesn’t show the posts to 90% of followers? #instagramlikes #instagram
— luce (@LucieSeviour) July 17, 2019
what we ask for: chronological order
— ash ⚢ (@ashturnxr) July 18, 2019
what we get: this#instagramlikes pic.twitter.com/PmNzWmZrNC
instagram starting to not show the amount of likes is ABSOLUTELY a step in the right direction and im stoked
— Tyde Levi (@TydeLevi) July 18, 2019
that make no sense because instagram is all about the likes... https://t.co/D7E551Lh6q
— andrés (@ghostinlipa) July 17, 2019
So what do you think? Do you think this is a step in the right direction?
