A couple of years ago, Instagram launched what it was at the time it had seemed like a real revolution: the social network of photos, owned by Facebook, announced that it would hide the likes received from the posts (visible only to the author). The reason, as Adam Mosseri then explained, head of Instagram, was to “try to take the pressure off users”, making the platform less competitive and more soothing, less a like hunt and more a place to post freely.
At the basis of the decision were the many studies showing how quantitative metrics had transformed social networks, and Instagram in particular, into a gigantic popularity contest, with everything. what can be achieved in terms of psychological well-being, especially for the younger ones. The choice of Instagram was therefore greeted positively and did not even seem to raise particular protests from the subscribers.
However, it could also have been the one that led to that unexpected decision hope that, by removing the likes, the activity of Instagram users would have grown further, because for many the likes represent a double-edged sword: a discharge of gratification that encourages us to post more, but also a deterrent, which at times it holds us back from posting content that we fear will receive poor acclaim, making us appear less popular. Deciding, as Instagram did in 2019, of let the “likes” be visible only those who posted the content would have kept our desire to receive as much as possible unchanged, however freeing us from the pressure linked to the fact that everyone could see the satisfaction of one of our posts.
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Now, Instagram has reversed and since May, the likes are again visible by default. Why? As Mosseri always explained, the studies carried out during these two years (both by Facebook and by others) showed that the fears related to anxiety caused by social networks may have been exaggerated and that removing likes from Instagram would not significantly change the situation: “What we heard from the experts is that they do not see the like count it is beneficial for some and annoying for others – wrote Mosseri – Particularly because people use this tally to get an idea of what’s trending or popular. Consequently, we are giving you the choice. “
At first glance, it would seem the best decision: why impose the invisibility of likes on everyone, when there are those who might prefer otherwise? Isn’t it better to let the subscribers themselves choose? The problem is that the way the likes were reintroduced tells a completely different story: Instagram doesn’t allow you to choose whether or not others will see the “likes” of our posts, but on the contrary it is others who can decide to see or not how many likes we have received.
In a nutshell, we can decide to have a completely unlike feed, but we cannot choose to hide from others how many “likes” we have received. It’s a complete turnaround, partially mitigated by the fact that we can hide the likes of our individual posts, from time to time, but not by default. And to hide them we must also follow a complicated procedure that passes through the advanced settings.
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The (real) reasons for choosing Instagram
Why this decision by Instagram? The explanation is probably hidden in a sentence by Mosseri: “After removing the likes, the usage has not changed, the app has not been used more or less”. If Instagram really hoped that by removing the “likes” people would feel more free to post, so they would post more content, this did not happen. And so a crucial element was reintroduced, especially for the important influencer market.
The considerations, at this point, are two: if people have not increased the use of Instagram, perhaps the fears related to the psychological damage caused by social networks are really excessive; if Facebook and Instagram really cared about the well-being of their subscribers would provide everyone with the ability to easily hide likes from their posts. Instead, they did exactly the opposite.
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