Last week, word went around that Instagram was mulling over the idea of hiding the number of likes from public view. Tech Crunch reported that one of their frequent tipsters spotted the change for hiding likes deep in IG's Android code (one change among many, including augmented reality filters for Direct Video calls and karaoke lyrics in Stories).
The way it would work is that you, the owner of the account, will continue to see how many people were putting hearts into your posts, but the rest of us would not be able to see the actual ticker count, but only by a few names “and others.” It's still in the test stage and will not be deployed anytime soon, if it all.
Instagram supposedly wants to do this to keep you sane. One UK study claimed that the image-sharing platform is the worst social media for mental health. We don’t need to be told about this, unfortunately—issues of envy, low self-worth, and schadenfraude have all but become the new normal in our life on social media, some less able to carry it well than others.
But the ones who will be most affected by this change, if it does get deployed, will definitely be the Instagram influencers whose fame and income depend on those likes. While Instagram doesn’t seem like it’s going to hide follower numbers as well, logic tells us that brands who pay influencers with huge followers naturally expect to get the same number of likes for their partnerships. If hiding likes happens, the selling power is greatly diminished.
This will greatly affect how influencers make money. How Instagram makes money, though, is another thing entirely.
Like its mother company Facebook, Instagram is advertising-driven. Influencers have thus far been successful in gaming their algorithms, after all, the brands often go directly to them. The simple act of hiding likes only shows that on social media, it’s always the platforms who are in control, not them. By demonstrating that all this fame and money can disappear with a finger-snap, brands and influencers will now have to be more wary of their ground on social media. If IG goes ahead with hiding likes, we wouldn’t be surprised if a new advertising model is also rolled out.
On our part, AO has been working with a lot of celebrities who have a considerable number of followers on Instagram and who are influencers themselves. We thought it best to ask them what it would mean to them if IG hid likes:
Miss World Philippines 2015 Vanessa Wright, recently featured on AO’s Fresh Face, seems new to IG: Only 2,506 followers as of this writing, and only 136 posts from her. “I think it’s great [IG hides likes]. I find that the number of likes on photos can hurt one’s self-esteem. They might question why one of their photos, particularly selfies, aren’t getting as many likes as others. There is so much comparison on Instagram, which is the root of a lot of people’s insecurities nowadays, so hiding the likes may help erase that.
Zarah Tolentino, a Viva actress who will soon appear in a movie with Nadine Lustre, is more active on IG: 19.4 K followers. 2,155 posts. Her take: “Nowadays, people are so into social media that we actually forget to enjoy the moment. We look ahead to a new post and crave for the likes and comments. In my case, I turn off my comments section sometimes because I want my Instagram to be like a digital diary where I can post everything I want without being afraid of people’s judgements. [IG hiding likes] is a good idea for me. However, it would inevitably change including the way my sponsorship deals are obtained.”
Yam Concepcion, Jade to many of you, has 1.7 million followers on IG. She takes the other side of the argument. “Why hide the number of likes? Insta should focus more on deactivating fake accounts! One account lang dapat per person! Ang dami kasing fake accounts. Nakakainis!”
Ang sungit ! Ha ha!