Hiding Likes Would Be A Welcomed First Step In Saving Instagram
News broke this week that Instagram may be tinkering with the idea of hiding likes, as a means to squash the inherently competitive nature of the app, taking the pressure off of content creators who feel they need to focus on “engagement” and hit certain like thresholds to keep themselves and potential clients happy.
Some may see it as the social media giant taking a necessary step towards tackling the very real depression that often comes with using any social media platform - but I’m a little bit more cynical about their sudden potential interest in hiding likes.
Instagram is tanking, and this latest move is to slow down their descent. Consider this move the “this is fine” meme of Instagram’s lifecycle.
Like with all social media giants, it’s hard to get legitimate, verifiable data on any measurable statistics. Instagram, like their parent company Facebook - along with Snapchat and Twitter - are comically tight-lipped about most internal data.
We’re told that Instagram has 1 billion active users because they told us they have 1 billion active users.
They, like all social media apps - portray themselves as an ever-growing platform. Giant apps that just seem to get bigger with every passing quarter, despite a litany of bad press in recent months.
This of course, is by design. No one wants to be the next Myspace. Since the word “social,” in “social media” refers to society, being seen as socioculturally hip and popular (lit AF) are vital to an app’s success. Society (or rather, the young, highly coveted 18-35 demo) aren’t going to use apps that are seen as lame. Facebook, due to creative stagnation, a number of recent missteps, and downright egregiously shady, potentially criminal behavior, have destroyed most of their cultural cache. Young people simply don’t use Facebook the way they did a decade ago. We’ve heard countless jokes about baby boomers getting politically radicalized via Facebook because - baby boomers use Facebook.
…in the U.S., there are more Facebook users from the 65 and above age group than those in the 13- to 17-year-old group. Out of its two billion monthly active users, 10% are boomers, while only 3% are from the younger demographic.
Simply put - Facebook is not “cool” anymore. Young people aren’t using Facebook. Condolences to those still sending Farmville invites or “poking” their friends - if such things still exist - again, I wouldn’t know, because I don’t use the app like that.
The saving grace - at least right now - for Facebook, is that they own Instagram.
The problem though, is that quite a few people are less active on the app than they used to be, if they haven’t abandoned or deleted their profiles outright.
Anyone who’s spent any time on the app recently knows this to be true. Where people (influencers included) used to post daily, or even multiple times a day - they’re now posting once a week, if that. Some will go several weeks without making a post.
Sure, a chunk of them will remain active through the increased usage of the stories feature, but that’s for a reason: Their pictures no longer get as many likes as they once did.
Speaking anecdotally as someone who was at one time considered an “influencer,” I post multiple stories a day, but go weeks or even months without making a post on my feed.
As I write this, I currently have 67K followers - but my last picture got a whooping 410 likes, whereas two years ago, I was getting 1200+ likes routinely. I’ve lost two-thirds of my reach because of an algorithm that has decimated growth for most content creators, in favor of propping up a small percentage of larger influencers who didn’t need any additional help growing their accounts.
Why would I continue posting at the rate I was, when fewer and fewer people are engaging with my work? My time can be better spent elsewhere.
I, like many others, have decided it’s better to stay active via stories where your numbers are kept private - much like the internal data the owners of these apps refuse to disclose to anyone but their shareholders.
I reach roughly a billion or so people with every story I post. Things are going great! Why post?
Since Instagram (again, like all social media giants) refuse to own up to mistakes big and small - they’ll never come out and admit that the algorithm was a self-inflicted wound. Instead, they’ll put bandaids over their gashes by introducing new features here and there that will moderately boost morale.
First it was the not-quite-chronological-but-somewhat-chronological improvement to the algorithm, now it’s talk of potentially wiping out the visibility of likes altogether.
They continue to ignore the elephant in the room: if you want users to be as active as they once were, eliminate the algorithm and bring back the chronological feed.
As Instagram continues to bleed out, seemingly preparing to accept its fate alongside parent company Facebook as they both march towards Myspacedom - eliminating the visibility of likes would be a solid, if temporary move. More work ultimately needs to be done, but it seems like they’re as close as they’ve ever been to admitting fault.