Instagram, a very popular social media used to share images and videos to the public or just your friends and family, has now decided to start removing likes from posts. This experiment was performed in seven countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and Japan to see how it would affect the users and the app itself before making it global. Instagram users will only be able to see their own likes and views personally while the public will not be able to.  

The experiment received mixed reviews; some users believed that hiding the likes allowed them to not think as much when posting and felt more joy posting, while others didn’t like the change.

Some have said that no one wanted the change and Instagram is making unneeded issues and not actually fixing what the public wants. Many have said that, if they take away likes, Instagram becomes an app that already exists, VSCO, a social media used by many teens to share and republish others’ posts. VSCO also does not show how many likes or followers the user has, but the user can see their own personal activity. 

Many teenagers in high school are upset about Instagram removing the likes for the social media apps. 

“Literally that is all I post for,” says sophomore Mia Uy.

 While others, like sophomore Malia Neely, see it as a good thing. 

“It is a good thing because then people won’t obsess over likes and how many they got,” says Malia. She says it also as a way to improve mental health and not having to compare yourself to others on how many likes you got compared to another person.

I think that hiding likes may improve mental health in certain ways, but Instagram is already flooded with models and other influencers that many users already see on a daily basis and compare themselves to.

Basically, the likes being hidden may help in some ways, but overall it will not have a huge impact to make social media a more positive space. I also think that taking away likes may actually hurt Instagram and other influencers because it make cause the engagement to go down and not have as many people involved within the app and what they see.