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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

#61

Post by EE84M3i »

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…

Reminds me a bit of Tinder Gold "hide my age" feature. Everyone has their age shown unless you pay extra to hide it, so hiding almost always will look worse than your actual age.

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

#62

Post by whywhywhywhy »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #58
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.

It's third party but I did almost exactly this with Tweetbot's mute feature. A lot of political topics can be summarized in a few buzzwords. Twitter tends to be much more focused on positivity and work topics since I've made this change.

You can do this on standard Twitter too, and I do. But it's a game of whack a mole, every few weeks theres another political hot topic that floods the timeline and I have to add another word to the blocklist which is now over 1000 words.

What frustrates me is I know Twitter knows these topics are political, I know they could add a switch to hide it all but I also suspect they don't want to because they consider it important that I hear about what they consider important.

America is not the world but the rest of the world is subjected constantly to events and outrage as if it is the whole world because the people running these platforms only have a very small perspective of what the world is.

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

#64

Post by headmelted »

rsgrn wrote: post #44
headmelted wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, why are we being forced to subsidize EastEnders? Whats the public benefit from that rubbish? CBeebies, CBBC - cool. Public benefit makes sense. BBC Science and Documentaries - Public benefit. Fully justifiable. EastEnders - Pay money to make other people less intelligent or we’ll fine you.

I've never thought of EastEnders from that perspective. I don't disagree. In theory, it could be used as a method of creating awareness and discussion of important life topics in a real life like familiar setting. And you can sort of see how they try to do that... but the need to have some new dramatic event every six weeks overshadows it.

And that’s the issue. It’s only a lifelike setting if your life is like that of a Jeremy Kyle victim (who’s lives are likely not like they are depicted at all).

Give us money against your will to pay for things you don’t agree with or we’ll take away your access to live media from everyone else too.

Now whether or not they can carry out the threats they’re notorious for or not, I’m just saying if it walks like an extortionist and quacks like an extortionist..

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

#65

Post by mensetmanusman »

papito wrote: post #14

What I really need is a way to lock myself out of the account, especially Twitter, without suspending it. Like, disable the login for a day, but I am still on the platform. The electric fences I put up myself never work.

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 technology that is only about a decade old.

I have to keep reminding myself that the world we live in is an infant, and social media will exist in a century, but our relationship to it will be very different than it is now.

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

#66

Post by headmelted »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #57
headmelted wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, why are we being forced to subsidize EastEnders? Whats the public benefit from that rubbish? CBeebies, CBBC - cool. Public benefit makes sense. BBC Science and Documentaries - Public benefit. Fully justifiable. EastEnders - Pay money to make other people less intelligent or we’ll fine you.

You're not forced to subsidize it. If you don't watch live TV or iPlayer you don't have to pay. They'll send you threatening letters every 2 years or so saying they're going to come round your house but you just have to go on the website again and tell them you still don't watch live TV.

Why is that even necessary?

Essentially you’re guilty until you declare yourself innocent, and you need to prove innocence if the Beeb’s minions turn up at your house? What if you didn’t realize you needed the license because the rules around live broadcasts and battery-powered devices are so absurd?

People get sent to jail over this ridiculous situation while the government cheers from the sidelines.

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

#67

Post by forinti »

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…

Same here, I don't seek out anyone on Instagram. I follow accounts that interest me, such as Museums, Ministry of Culture, language teachers, etc.

The Hermitage Museum, for example, posts excellent content.

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

#68

Post by oarsinsync »

selfhoster11 wrote: post #48
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 doubt that such stigma will be very widespread. There's been a renewed focus within the society to focus on digital well-being, screen time, and general mental wellness connected to the overuse of social media platforms and smartphones. People will try this feature just out of curiosity, and be able to tell their peers about non-social standing related reasons for why it's useful.

The likelihood of that outcome seems likely to be proportional to age.

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

#69

Post by zelon88 »

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.

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

#70

Post by xwdv »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #65
papito wrote: post #14

What I really need is a way to lock myself out of the account, especially Twitter, without suspending it. Like, disable the login for a day, but I am still on the platform. The electric fences I put up myself never work.

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.
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