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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

#111

Post by SamBam »

deergomoo wrote: post #20

Instagram can actually be a nice place, if used as a platform to look at cool pictures and not at all as a social network. I never added any friends or family, I just follow accounts and topics I'm interested in. So my feed is almost entirely pixel art, cool architecture, and retro console mods, and it's very pleasant. Considering they're Facebook-owned, I see surprisingly little effort to cram low-effort garbage dow…

I think there are a few different modes that people use it in (and I'm sure the folks at Instagram have this down to a more precise science):

* Consumer-only: simply following artists/whatever and not contributing anything

* Family and friends: Sharing pictures of your holiday/kid/cat/food with people you know

* Influencers and wannabe influencers: Actively seeking to grow an audience

I don't think between 1 & 2 anyone can say one is better than the other, they're two quite different modes of using the app. Number 2 obviously can lead to people wondering why their 15th funny picture of their cat didn't get as many likes, and it's for this group that I think turning off likes altogether can help the most.

I would expect, though, that if everyone in a family-and-friends circle were turning off their likes, comments would become a proxy for likes, and there would be an expectation to add "nice!", "beautiful!" "how funny!" to posts, and then a similar feeling when posts don't get any response.

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

#112

Post by mensetmanusman »

xwdv wrote: post #70
mensetmanusman wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of young adult catholics in my area have started including social media in their list of things to practice will over (to improve well being, grow in empathy, etc.). E.g. It has been a regular practice for the last two millennia to fast on Friday from some subset of enjoyable activity. It’s interesting to watch ancient cultures start to contemplate social media and suggest healthy behaviors towards it, a technol…

Wow, imagine major religions eventually taking the next step to building their own official social media ecosystems, built by programmer priests.

Yeah, I like to imagine programmer monks hidden away working on assembly language for thousands of years.

Reminds me of the book Anathem (great book, tons of Catholic imagery)

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

#113

Post by kache_ »

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 still allow users to like. However, you might be right that they don't really need it. They have engagement metrics based on your scrolling behavior.

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

#114

Post by antirez »

It requires a very high amount of naiveness to think this could solve the issue. Only thing that will help is education of children, so that they understand their place in the world, to accept themselves, that the aesthetic standards provided in social networks are very high (but yet, as a central European my sensibility is a bit different than the one in other places -- I would suggest that this must be a stimulus to avoid gaining weight, to train, and so forth), that random appreciation in terms of "likes" is not a sensible measure of how much a person is worth, and so forth.

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

#115

Post by PragmaticPulp »

offtop5 wrote: post #56
durovo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now you hang out at HN which is totally different from social media. Where people never seek approval from the masses. Chastising other people as a concept does not exist on HN. HN, the not-social media, does not even have a concept of likes.

But you're not chastising me, or my physical appearance. Having people call you ugly all day is probably one of the worst parts of Instagram. You're merely chastising a few of my opinions. There's so much detachment from the rest of me. In the early days of Facebook I actually screwed up a relationship as I was worried my first girlfriend would post the wrong thing on my wall, and oh no all my friends would see. Hack…

> Having people call you ugly all day is probably one of the worst parts of Instagram.

That’s not at all typical for Instagram. In fact, anyone being called “ugly” would do well to block whoever is making those comments, which is very easy on the platform.

> Hacker News isn't really a social media site since there's no concept of followers or friends here.

Hacker News is absolutely a social media. The comments section is all about social discussion and we have upvotes and downvotes.

You may like it more than other forms of social media because it lacks pictures, allows usernames instead of real names, and replaces likes with upvotes (and downvotes, arguably more toxic than likes). However, it’s still social media.

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

#116

Post by KittenInABox »

antirez wrote: post #114

It requires a very high amount of naiveness to think this could solve the issue. Only thing that will help is education of children, so that they understand their place in the world, to accept themselves, that the aesthetic standards provided in social networks are very high (but yet, as a central European my sensibility is a bit different than the one in other places -- I would suggest that this must be a stimulus t…

I doubt that the only thing that will help is education. Education cannot win over something where other, more educated people are putting full-time careers in psychological hijacking of children. A 12 year old doesn't stand a chance no matter how much they accept themselves.

This stuff needs to be regulated like cigarettes.

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

#117

Post by bencollier49 »

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…

This is why the feature was introduced. Just a gesture.

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

#118

Post by antirez »

KittenInABox wrote: post #116
antirez wrote: post #114

It requires a very high amount of naiveness to think this could solve the issue. Only thing that will help is education of children, so that they understand their place in the world, to accept themselves, that the aesthetic standards provided in social networks are very high (but yet, as a central European my sensibility is a bit different than the one in other places -- I would suggest that this must be a stimulus t…

I doubt that the only thing that will help is education. Education cannot win over something where other, more educated people are putting full-time careers in psychological hijacking of children. A 12 year old doesn't stand a chance no matter how much they accept themselves. This stuff needs to be regulated like cigarettes.

I don't agree because the contact with real teenagers at school and other places where children meet was as brutal as it is today even in the past. Now there are new elements, that is, the fact you have to confront yourself with a lager audience of people and you can see unreal standards. But even at school with 400 children there will be the extremely pretty, the extremely good at sports, and so forth. And what is likes in social networks, in the real world translates to certain folks getting all the attention and other being regarded as trash. I think that certain problems that are embedded in being humans in a modern society are now all attributed to social networks, but this is not the case. Similarly people already used to vote for crazy folks: we in Italy had Berlusconi in '90s. Before there was Hitler and Mussolini. Similarly to think that US got Trump because social networks is a simplification that fails to capture reality.

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

#120

Post by electronica »

KittenInABox wrote: post #116
antirez wrote: post #114

It requires a very high amount of naiveness to think this could solve the issue. Only thing that will help is education of children, so that they understand their place in the world, to accept themselves, that the aesthetic standards provided in social networks are very high (but yet, as a central European my sensibility is a bit different than the one in other places -- I would suggest that this must be a stimulus t…

I doubt that the only thing that will help is education. Education cannot win over something where other, more educated people are putting full-time careers in psychological hijacking of children. A 12 year old doesn't stand a chance no matter how much they accept themselves. This stuff needs to be regulated like cigarettes.

More regulation is the silliest answer I’ve heard to this issue. Thank you.

A 12 year old who self accepts to its truest form isn’t concerned with the baseless issues of ‘likes’. As with any other adult who self accepts.

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