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Instagram lets users hide likes to reduce social media pressure

bbc.com

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Re: Instagram lets users hide likes to reduce social media pressure

#101

Post by pfraze »

yoavm wrote: post #41
totaldex wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It appears that this setting controls cross-account like visibility on posts: "Even if a user has Like Counts enabled, they will not be able to see the number of likes on accounts or posts that have hidden them."

Sounds like the perfect solution if you want to say "we are releasing features that support a healthy usage of the our app", and at the same time make sure no one uses these features!

FWIW Casey Newton posted a writeup- they ran trials for a couple years and the response was polarized (some loved it, some hated it) and they couldn’t find any clear indicator that it was healthier for people.

Re: Instagram lets users hide likes to reduce social media pressure

#102

Post by woudsma »

totaldex wrote: post #10

Even with positive intentions, I'm not convinced this will solve the problem in any meaningful way. Turning off likes might be perceived as someone being unhappy with their social media status relative to their peers (ie, not getting as many 'likes' as their friends), which signals its own stigma. Users will be forced into a new dilemma: Enable likes and accept the 'social media pressure', or announce to everyone tha…

I'm not a social media user, but I'm actually considering to start using Instagram with this feature.

Disabling likes doesn't show that I harbor insecurity, it simply removes the 'rat race' feeling that I have with social media. (which was the reason why I stopped using it a couple years ago).

Re: Instagram lets users hide likes to reduce social media pressure

#103

Post by mixmastamyk »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #55

If they truly cared about users mental health FB/IG and Twitter would also add a switch in the options to hide all political discussion.

I did that manually last year by blocking all lowbrow sources (orgs and individuals) in the FB news feed.

Re: Instagram lets users hide likes to reduce social media pressure

#104

Post by an_opabinia »

tomcooks wrote: post #42
totaldex wrote: post #10

Even with positive intentions, I'm not convinced this will solve the problem in any meaningful way. Turning off likes might be perceived as someone being unhappy with their social media status relative to their peers (ie, not getting as many 'likes' as their friends), which signals its own stigma. Users will be forced into a new dilemma: Enable likes and accept the 'social media pressure', or announce to everyone tha…

It's almost as if the company that runs Instagram wants you to feel like they are truly, honestly, really, properly interested in losing the core of their business for the sake of your own mental health and the psychological wellbeing of society in general

TikTok just makes up the view counts. So everyone feels like they're growing an audience. Instagram could do the same. They probably will. It would probably both increase engagement and, would it be bad for mental health?

Anyway, I deleted my Facebook and Instagram accounts 5 years ago.

Re: Instagram lets users hide likes to reduce social media pressure

#105

Post by patorjk »

Nagyman wrote: post #77
zelon88 wrote: post #69

I must've been in the testing batch because in 2019 my Instagram simply stopped telling me how many people had liked my post and I could not for the life of me figure out how to fix that. I just checked and for the first time since I can remember I can see how many people like my posts again. I feel like a quick notification informing me that I was part of a study would have been appropriate.

IIRC, it was a permanent change for everyone. This most recent change re-adds the ability to see counts.

I've always been able to see my like count. I've been waiting to see if it'd disappear, but it never did. I post regularly too.

Re: Instagram lets users hide likes to reduce social media pressure

#106

Post by 72deluxe »

comfyinnernet wrote: post #100
72deluxe wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and also need to hide the speedometer in cars because my mother-in-law drives incredibly slowly and being a passenger has a negative effect on my mental health. We also need to abolish the "top apps" features in the various app stores because my apps didn't sell well and it had a terrible effect on me. We also need to ensure that everyone in the Formula 1 finishes at the same time, holding hands, because the "lo…

I thought I'd seen bad analogies before, but I had no idea what was possible.

Haha thank you!

That genuinely made me laugh haha

You are right - they are terrible analogies, and I am proud of them.

Re: Instagram lets users hide likes to reduce social media pressure

#107

Post by the_local_host »

totaldex wrote: post #10

Even with positive intentions, I'm not convinced this will solve the problem in any meaningful way. Turning off likes might be perceived as someone being unhappy with their social media status relative to their peers (ie, not getting as many 'likes' as their friends), which signals its own stigma. Users will be forced into a new dilemma: Enable likes and accept the 'social media pressure', or announce to everyone tha…

Instagram should allow users to simply set the number of likes to whatever they want to have displayed, and let it increment from there.

If Instagram is letting people turn the feature off, then it's likely that they don't actually need "likes" for their data-collection purposes.

Re: Instagram lets users hide likes to reduce social media pressure

#108

Post by SamBam »

hn8788 wrote: post #59

It seems silly, but I think this could actually be helpful for some people. I have my upvotes hidden on reddit because I found myself regularly checking the site after I would post, just to see if the number of upvotes I received had increased. It's not like it was making me feel pressure or depressed if a post didn't get votes, but it felt the same way video games feel when you try to get a high score. Hiding the vo…

How do you do that? I see an option in my Reddit preferences to "make my votes public," but it doesn't seem like this hides votes on my own posts from me.

Re: Instagram lets users hide likes to reduce social media pressure

#110

Post by dylan604 »

the_local_host wrote: post #107
totaldex wrote: post #10

Even with positive intentions, I'm not convinced this will solve the problem in any meaningful way. Turning off likes might be perceived as someone being unhappy with their social media status relative to their peers (ie, not getting as many 'likes' as their friends), which signals its own stigma. Users will be forced into a new dilemma: Enable likes and accept the 'social media pressure', or announce to everyone tha…

Instagram should allow users to simply set the number of likes to whatever they want to have displayed, and let it increment from there. If Instagram is letting people turn the feature off, then it's likely that they don't actually need "likes" for their data-collection purposes.

>they don't actually need "likes" for their data-collection purposes.

Is that what's happening? My understanding is that you can hide the displaying of the likes, but still allow people to like them. In that case, the metrics are still being collected.

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