Should Instagram get rid of likes? | The Tylt

Per NPR's Brakkton Booker, the motivation to hide like counts on IG comes from a desire to protect the mental health of users across the country. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri explained his thinking at the Wired25 conference, commenting: 

"It's about young people," Mosseri said. "The idea is to try to 'depressurize' Instagram, make it less of a competition and give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them."

For users who feel a little hesitant about the change, there's no need to panic. Testing won't be rolled out all at once, and like counts will still be visible to users themselves, just not followers: 

"Right now, we're testing making like counts private, so you'll be able to see how many people liked a given photo of yours or a video of yours, but no one else will," Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram announced Friday.

If hiding likes successfully reduces anxiety among users, Instagram is moving in the right direction.

Unsurprisingly, many people are upset by the prospect of hiding likes—influencers not least among them. As TechCrunch's Josh Constine points out, influencers' success is Instagram's success: 

While it seems likely that making Instagram less of a popularity contest might aid the average user, Instagram has to be mindful that it doesn’t significantly decrease creators’ or influencers’ engagement and business success. These content makers are vital to Instagram’s success, since they keep their fan bases coming back day after day, even If users’ friends are growing stale.

Influencers make money through authentic recommendations to followers, and like counts are one of many important metrics for their success. Per Hopper, influencer marketing is a $2 billion industry, and it has the potential to grow to $10 billion by 2020. And according to Constine, influencers in countries with hidden like counts on IG saw up to a 15 percent decrease in total likes across posts. Constine concludes

While Mosseri stated the company wasn’t afraid to hurt its own bottom line, impairing the careers of influencers may not be acceptable unless the positive impacts on well-being are significant enough.

Some users welcome the change. Instagram can be both a welcoming and volatile place, and hiding likes is a long-overdue step in making the platform open to all. In explaining why the change is necessary, one user tweeted: 

Others argue getting rid of likes defeats the purpose of Instagram altogether.