Gimme Likes or Gimme Death
Yes, likes are important. They mean a lot to people. A LOT. Having a post light up with little hearts all day is thrilling. I get it. But what if your followers couldn't see your likes? What if only the account user could see who's liking their posts? Instagram is currently testing a new system that does just that. WHAT? Noooooo. Don’t take our away our likes!
According to a recent CNN article, it states, "Whether Instagram does away with likes permanently remains to be seen. But its decision to roll out the test in the US could indicate it's one step closer to doing just that." Instagram feels the “likes” system is contributing negatively to society and hypothesizes these features can possibly wreak havoc on the user’s mental health, creating insecurity as to why some people are liking posts but not theirs. The article goes on to say, “Instagram has been rethinking how likes contribute to making its
platform more toxic. Now it's contemplating a change.”
Say it isn’t so! What does this mean for consumers? How will we know what’s cool if we don't see a significant number by a little heart? We'll just have to form our own opinion? How do you do that? Just kidding, but it kinda seems like our way of thinking these days. Likes have become a strong influence on where we put our dollars. If a product we’ve never used has a ton of likes, we tend to use that as a green light to buy it. How will this change affect small businesses and influencers? CNN lays it all out here.
