BY Angela Vivona
Staff Reporter
Do you like people seeing how many likes you get on your Instagram posts?
“Likes are not important to me, but they are neat. I get happy when I get a lot of likes, yet I don’t get upset if I don’t get that many likes,” said junior Nick Palluzzi.
Well, whether you like it or not, Instagram recently removed the visual number of likes a user receives on a post. Which means, users no longer know exactly how many likes their friends are getting on their posts.
Instagram is an American photo and video-sharing social network service owned by Facebook. The app allows users to post and share content with their friends and followers.
“I feel that Instagram removing likes from posts is a new tactic being trialed in order to try and create a personal and less stressful experience on the app,” said junior Marco Sinapi.
According to Instagram’s Twitter account, they released a statement saying that the decision was made so that users can “focus on the photos and videos you share not how many likes they get.”
“I think likes affect what people post. If you don’t get a lot of likes, it shows that people might not personally like it, but when you get a lot of likes it makes you feel better about yourself,” said senior Kayla Mozzicato.
The new feature allows you to see your own likes by tapping on the list of people who’ve liked it, but your friends will not be able to see how many likes your post has received, according to Instagram’s tweet.
“I’m content with the decision to remove likes because it gives a more private experience, so people could stop worrying about the amount of likes they get. This makes people more inclined to post whatever they feel without the stress of people calling them out for having a low number of likes,” said Sinapi.
However, Mossicato did not understand why Instagram made the change at first.
“I didn’t understand what the point of it was because I liked seeing who liked who’s post. But after thinking about it more, I feel as though it would be for the best” said Mossicato.
In April, Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri told Buzzfeed News that removing likes was about “creating a less pressurized environment where people feel comfortable expressing themselves.”
“It doesn’t particularly bother me that they took them away. It bothers me more at the fact that people allowed something such as likes on a picture affect their mental health so much that the CEO needed to make a decision to remove the visualization of likes on a picture. However, the person who posted the photo can still see how many likes they get so, to me, it all seems pointless in the long run,” said junior Emma Cannetti.
According to Businessinsider.com, Mosseri said, “We will make decisions that hurt the business if it helps peoples well-being and health.”
“I think Instagram removing likes is a healthy thing for society as a whole and a step in the right direction for the state of mental health currently. It might take a while for people to get used to, but I feel like I feel like in a few months to a year, not having likes will be normal,” said junior Matt Gregory.
“I mainly use Instagram for memes anyways. I normally just scroll through and will like a couple of people’s pictures, but it is very thoughtless. I don’t really pay attention to how many likes people get and I don’t think it will change what people post so it doesn’t bother me,” said Hanley.
Some students say that the removal of likes will not affect their views of Instagram and how they utilize the app. However, they are hopeful that it may just create a better future for social media.
“I don’t think people put up a picture because they think it will get them a lot of likes. I think people post pictures to show how unique and individual they are or so on. I don’t think that people not being able to see your likes will affect what people post as long as they can see their number of likes,” said Hanley.
“I wouldn’t say that likes are important to me, but it is something I take note of and think it’s cool when a photo gets more likes than normal. My friends, family, and health are what’s really important to me and I think removing likes is a step to get people to hopefully be more aware of that too,” said Gregory.