Instagram likes are gone, but is that really a good thing?

My guess is probably yes. I for one, love Instagram, and I also love- you guessed it- attention on social media. Don’t we all? Instagram can be a wonderful way to share pictures, updates, statuses, business ventures or share ideas, creativity or information. But instagram can also give us the quick fix of attention and feel-good endorphins we need, as soon as we want them. This can lead to many teenagers (quite like myself) spending waaaay too much time online, and becoming dependent on apps like instagram to give us that mood boost we need.

Teenage girls in particular are prone to focusing on the amount of likes a photo gets, and many delete photos if they don’t receive as many likes as they feel they ‘need’ to keep in line with the rest of their account. Some of us also judge a persons character by how many likes they get on each post- so basically correlating popularity to how many times people decided to double tap on a screen, (ridiculous).

By removing the amount of likes each post receives, instagram is hopefully taking a huge step forward in completely banishing that way of thinking. One can see how many likes they themselves receive, but not how many other people get, which is a huuuuuge game changer.

Zuckerberg himself has said that ‘We want people to be less interested in how many likes a post gets, and focus more on connecting with other people.” And to be honest, I am all for this. This new experiment will allow instagram users to focus more on the authenticity of their content, rather than the popularity and social status of the people they follow.

So as for now, social influencers are quaking, people selling ‘detox tea’ and charcoal toothpaste are shaking and the rest of us, really have no idea how this will change our insta game. But as for me, I really really hope that this is a huge step in the right direction, god knows we need a positive social media story right about now.

Daisy x