Facebook-owned Instagram will from next week hide likes for some users in a bid to reduce unhealthy competition on the social media site.
Getting more likes or ‘hearts’ on Instagram is a big deal for some people prompting them to do whatever it takes to get the likes, thus causing unhealthy competition and even mental problems.
In order to reduce unhealthy competition among some users, likes will only be visible to the account owners and not visible to other users thus other users would not be able to make comparisons.
“Likes, or how many hearts a post gets, will disappear from Instagram’s feed and user profile pages,” a report by CNN said.
The plan which mostly targets the young population is an aim to make Instagram a social site and not a competition site.
According to Instagram manager George Moseri, the majority of the users are young people who are addicted to social media and they get mental problems as they try to prove that they are popular based on the number of likes they get.
“The idea is to depressurize Instagram, make it less of a competition,” Moseri argued.
Social media has been linked with causing anxiety and depression among users as most people use them to show-off or view other people’s lives.
Sadly, a good number of people have been forced to live a fake life just to be at per with their rivals or those they admire on social media.
Teenagers spend most of their time on social media using their mobile devices as compared to adults, something that has been linked with depression or anxiety among the young group.
Though it has not yet been proven that social media can cause depression and anxiety, it is clear that having likes and views on social media can drive someone nuts.
Instagram has already implemented the new plan on hiding likes in countries like Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand.
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