If you’ve been on social media recently or have followed tech trends and news, you’ve probably heard of the rage about losing Instagram likes. News is everywhere, with many users complaining that they can’t see likes or views on other people’s posts.
Instagram announced these changes back in April, but this is just a test. They first started doing this “no-no” test in Canada and have since spread to six other countries. Test results won’t be released soon, but at least Instagram has given us a reason.
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Top Reasons Instagram Removed Likes
There were several reasons for this drastic change in Instagram, all unveiled at the F8 Facebook conference. As you know, Facebook owns Instagram, and these social media giants are closely related.
Recently, likes and views are more important than content, and if you think about it, this change makes sense. Instead of focusing on these counts, Instagram wants to turn their attention back to the most important factor: the actual content of the platform.
They also want to reduce bullying, which is becoming increasingly common on social media. Many immature users strictly mock people on Instagram because of the lack of likes on their posts. Removal of likes is a means to end bullying and reduce harmful behavior on Instagram.
How does it work?
Countries included in this “dislike” test are Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Italy and Japan. Instagram said it chose this country because it wanted a country with a lot of tech-savvy test subjects and platforms.
It is not yet known when this test will be extended to other countries. Perhaps they will never reach the US and UK. No one can say for sure.
Users selected for testing will be notified of a change in the number of likes in their main Instagram feed. It seems to be randomly selected, so I can’t just ask them to be included.
Selected people can see the number of likes on the post and the names of people who liked the post. But others have no way of knowing these details.
Who will be most affected by this change?
Instagram and Facebook have had a huge impact on the global population from the very beginning. Social trends spread very quickly thanks to these platforms and the people on them that are widely known as influencers. These people are probably the most affected by this change. Because their lives and work depend heavily on the number of views and likes.
These numbers are a measure of success and provide evidence of the impact social media has on followers as well as business partners. They make a living by marketing a particular product or service to an audience.
The more views and likes you get, the more impressions you get and the more business opportunities you get. Without likes, these changes have a direct impact on their livelihoods, as they can struggle to prove to others that their content is popular.
Instagram acknowledges this but wants influencers to find other ways to prove their worth to fans and supporters.
Is this a good change or a bad change?
Likes have always been an integral part of Instagram and many other social media platforms. A way to show encouragement and approve someone’s content. This change did not remove the likes. It just hid their calculations from the general public.
Likes, views, and followers are still there and can be easily used by content creators and shared with business colleagues. Follower count may be a more important feature than the number of likes for an individual post.
People shouldn’t take likes too seriously, and perhaps this is what Instagram is trying to achieve. There are no dislikes on Instagram, so likes are worth more. Likes alone are not so reliable when there is no likes and dislikes comparison.
These tests received a lot of backlash at first, but they seem to be more accepted over time. Even some influencers say they enjoy the change as they can focus on other things besides getting more likes and views for their photos and videos.
Where Instagram is heading
Instagram knows how big a deal the platform is and is trying to make a positive change. They want more organic content and posts that people can relate to instead of hyped fake views and likes.
There are many third-party apps on the internet that cause artificial traffic influx from social media. You can use it to skyrocket your business page or personal profile overnight. A profile with only 100 followers and about 20 likes per post can go to 1000 followers and 100 likes per post in an instant.
These likes, follows, and views come from bots, not real people. Inflated numbers on some profiles devalue other genuine Instagram accounts. For this reason, a new ban policy like Instagram seems like a really good idea.
what do you think about it?
Given all that has been said here, what do you think of Instagram’s anti-like policy? Do you want to keep your Instagram views and likes public, or do you think hiding it is a better idea? Join the conversation by sharing your thoughts in the comments below.
