Social networks are firmly established in everyday life of modern man. Now even the venerable lady in years and the baby, who was barely a year old, already has his own web page. Whether it’s good or bad, time will tell, but the dependence on likes has long ago grown into something more than just the need to show competitors a good hand. The mobile platform Instagram launched a new pilot project called “hidden likes”. For now, you can take advantage of this opportunity on a voluntary basis and some movie and pop stars are actively testing the new project.
Someone argues that this state of affairs on social networks will lead to sound account management without obsessive tracking of likes and comments. Others, mostly people leading business pages, are shocked by possible innovations and believe that they will adversely affect commercial affairs.
Almighty Instagram
Initially, Instagram was launched as a platform for posting images and was intended for creative photographers. And the developer of the most mobile social network is a photographer. However, a year later, Instagram was so firmly established in the everyday life of ordinary citizens who could quickly share their personal pictures that Facebook bought all the rights from its creator for a tidy sum.
Social Network Innovations
Just recently, stars began to flicker that they are using a new test project that intends to launch Instagram. As it turned out, the platform’s copyright holders launched a test project to find out how the new “hidden likes” feature affects the news feed. Instagram itself exists as a social network where people can share their lives and adventures by posting photos and providing them with small comments.
Of course, radical changes were met by users in different ways. There were many negative reviews from influential people, and some even spoke quite aggressively, threatening the owners to change the platform.
Bloggers for
However, there are those who took the innovations positively. Among them are a couple of popular bloggers - Marie Fe, who hails from Germany and her Australian fiancé Jake Snow. The couple is engaged and makes a living by publishing breathtaking photos of their travels.
So, young people believe that the “hidden likes” function will help the Instagram community not to be tied to the number of views and people will stop chasing unusual but sometimes dangerous frames and stop exposing photos to Photoshop, achieving idealness.
In addition, a couple of bloggers do not see obstacles in introducing innovations and for maintaining a business page on the Instagram platform.
Likes, views, comments
So far, Marie Fe and Jake Snow have 559,000 followers on their Instagram account. Their messages, as a rule, receive 30 000 - 45 000 likes. Therefore, the couple understands why some influential people consider the function of "hidden likes" bad for them.
They claim that they understand very well why business account owners consider innovation a demotivation for the development of their page. After all, everyone knows that the degree of engagement that the account creator receives from likes, views and comments is the main metric that shows how the person or brand actually affects users.
Here is what Jake says: “According to people who make a living through social networks, we believe that this step will be truly beneficial for society. After all, even the owners of business pages can always see their own indicators and evaluate how good the content is, how it is accepted by users, and adjust it accordingly to provide value and maintain interest. ”
According to bloggers, it doesn’t matter that anyone else can see the likes. The main thing is that the page owner sees them.
No negative
The couple believes that innovations will in no way affect them personally or anyone else negatively. Moreover, in fact, it will help other users who are overly obsessed with the number of likes shown in their posts to calm down and not chase after a fictitious recognition of success. Bloggers emphasize that Instagram will cease to be a kind of battlefield for young people who just dream of getting as many likes as possible. Now this will be put to an end.
“We have always considered Instagram as a tool to share our message, our art and work. But there are times when we all just chase the number of views, ”said 27-year-old Jake.
Unhealthy addiction
For many, the Instagram platform has become a perfectly filtered, vibrant video of a lifetime. But it’s not at all healthy that people began to constantly compare their everyday life with the ideal and filtered life of other people, which they see in the tape. The developers of the new feature “hidden likes” hope that it will encourage users to publish only what is really important to them.
Thus, people will not have such a big incentive to create an unhealthy person who is not real, if in the end there is no reward for perceived popularity or status in the form of likes. Bloggers urge their subscribers to create because they like it, and not in order to get a “like” for it.
Good intent account
The couple is proud of what they do. Young people argue that it’s much more important for them what positive impact they can have on their subscribers and how many people can inspire. After all, the main thing, according to them, is how valuable the page on Instagram is, how many people it makes you smile and how much its owner himself is happy with what he does.
Celebrity Protest
Among celebrities who are disappointed with the loss of the number of "likes" are many personalities. Tammy Hembrow, who has 10 million followers, is among those who threaten to leave Instagram. If the test function is fully implemented, Temmy will conduct his business in another social network. Influential people like her rely on the number of followers, comments and likes to inspire confidence in their person and demonstrate credibility to their sponsors. If the “hidden likes” are fully introduced, then influential people will lose their money because they will lose feedback.
Nasser Sultan is another angry Instagram user who claims he won’t “look like a celebrity” with “hidden likes”.
The personal trainer has 36,000 subscribers, with the exclusion of likes, he will no longer be sure of involvement, because people will not be able to see how popular his posts are. Nasser also threatens to leave the platform when implementing this function. He simply does not see the point in publishing his posts unless they cause a wide resonance that is visible to his subscribers.
However, bloggers and many others see this as only pluses and argue that the innovation will negate the obsession with many users, and especially young people. Teenagers sometimes take risky actions to get the coveted shot. And all for the sake of likes. Like it or not - time will tell.In the meantime, we are waiting for an official response from the owners of Instagram.