Instagram Likes? Those could be the things of the past pretty soon.

Instagram plans to remove the number of “likes” visible on posts for some users in the U.S. to decrease competitive pressure among people on the photo-sharing service. Instagram has been hiding like counts in some markets like Canada from April 2019 as part of a pilot move. Later it expanded to Japan and Brazil. The U.S. is one of Instagram’s largest markets with more than 100 million users. Instagram is going to pilot this in US pretty soon.

This is going to be rolled out pretty soon globally if the user behaviour and engagement does not seem to change significantly. And pretty soon this is going to be rolled out in India as well. Many celebrities and influencers have always showcased the number of likes in their posts and that always have increased competition among normal users as well. This is a great step in the right direction as per many  users who use this app extensively. 

Instagram’s follower counts and likes have made it one of the top places online to compare someone’s popularity with others. This is observed more among teens and young adults. The company has tried for years to combat the competitive trend by promoting good role models. Many companies in the recent past has tried to ensure that the users are not obsessive about their applications and are more focused on meaningful engagements. Instagram in the past has announced a feature where users can limit the amount of time they spend on the app any specific day. Apple also has built a similar app in iPhone by which users can limit the amount of time they spend with the gadget.

This indeed is a great step and should be encouraged. What’s your view on this?