Another test will de-emphasize a user's follower count on their profile page, in an effort to make Instagram feel less like a popularity contest.
Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, says the platform will test hiding the “like” count from photos and remove viewership numbers from videos to get users to pay more attention to the content itself. By Hamza Shaban Hamza Shaban Technology reporter Email Bio Follow May 1 at 11:58 AM Instagram will test hiding the number of likes photos and videos receive — a central aspect of its platform — to rein in competitive tendencies and make the experience a little “less pressurized.
In the test run, which will roll out in Canada this week, the Facebook-owned site will display user posts as it would normally, but people scrolling through the feed won’t see like counts. Users will still be able to view who liked a post. And account owners can see the like counts for their own photos and videos by clicking through a prompt.Mosseri said the experiment is part of a broader effort to rethink the fundamentals of how Instagram works, to create a more welcoming experience.
The psychological drawbacks of social media use have gained more attention in recent years, with parents, consumer advocates and even tech companies pointing to its potential to increase anxiety and social isolation. Technologists also have taken issue with popular social media platforms that place engagement metrics at center stage, encouraging users to maximize those figures by spending more time on the site and a perpetuating feedback loop of notifications and social validation.
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