Linked: Instagram Tests Hiding Like Counts to Reduce Focus on Vanity Metrics
This is, probably, a decent idea, but I have a question for Instagram, and Twitter for that matter. Look at the rationale for getting rid of “likes”:
“”Testing a Change to How You See Likes – We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get. During this test, only the person who shared the post will see the total number of likes it gets.””
And yet, what did all of the algorithmic changes do on these social networks? They changed from giving us everything in chronological order from the people we chose to follow, to showing us the most “relevant” things, which was based on how much engagement any one post got, especially “likes”.
They created a system where just to be seen you had to get people to like and engage with your content, and now want to get rid of likes in order to help people focus on what is being shared instead of how popular it is.
Here’s an idea, just go back to showing everything in reverse chronological order, no algorithm needed. That will help us all focus on what is being shared right now, today, by people and organizations I choose to follow, instead of what you think is important to me.
Done, and done.
So why won’t they do it?
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