Thanksgiving evening I was sitting around with family in Berkeley as we cooked and talked. Phil, my cousin-in-law, all of a sudden said, “Hey, I just got this message” and he showed his phone to us. It said that when he posts things on Instagram, people could still give it a like, but people would only see that the post got a like, it would not show how many likes it got.
The amazing thing is that all posts in his feeds, his posts and everyone else’s, only showed that likes were given to a post, but not the number of likes.
When he opened his post, it still says at the top how many likes it had, but only he could do that.
My eyes immediately lit up. I knew and had written about how Instagram was hiding likes in other countries but had not heard about it in the US. It quickly made me think of my son, who during his gap year before college was often talking about how cool it would be to make a social media platform all about fostering positive connections, getting rid of likes and doing other things to promote a more positive social media experience.
Maybe Instagram is really going to do this. Last Spring, the company began hiding likes in several countries including Canada, Brazil, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. This month, they brought the disappearing likes to a small number of US users, including Phil.
“Our interest in hiding likes really is just to depressurize Instagram for young people,” Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said in Business Insider earlier this month.
“It all comes down to making Instagram a safe and healthy place to spend time online, which is important for everyone’s mental health, but particularly Gen Z,” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, said at F8 earlier this year. “We want people to be less interested in how many likes a post gets, and focus more on connecting with other people.”
You will still be able to see likes on your posts just not everyone else’s, eliminating the “is theirs better than mine” comparisons that happen.
Right now, this is being tested with select groups with plans to roll out to more. That is why my cousin-in-law Phil had his Instagram changed. He was not asked beforehand and he could not have asked for it. It is random (or not random) who knows, but it was done all of a sudden on his account. He is indeed a beta tester now.
Many celebrity influencers responded positively to the change. Cardi B said removing likes is a step in the right direction but added that the comments section is often more damaging than the number of likes. “This is just my opinion… I mean what makes you feel more insecure getting no likes or people constantly giving opinions about you, your life, your topics?” she said in an early November post.
Kim Kardashian West agrees that taking away Instagram likes could be beneficial for our mental health. Attending the New York Times‘ DealBook Conference, Kim said: “As far as mental health, I think taking the likes away and taking that aspect away from [Instagram] would be really beneficial for people. I find myself to be extremely mentally strong and I have people who are obsessed with the comments, and I find that to be really unhealthy.”
“While the feedback from early testing has been positive, this is a fundamental change to Instagram,” Instagram’s PR department said to us in an email. “We’re continuing our test to learn more from our global community.” They told us that Facebook is also testing hiding likes on a smaller scale.
For this Tech Talk Tuesday, talk to your kids and teenagers about this. See if likes, or the lack thereof, truly matter to them. Or, are the comments where they feel the emotional hits?
Here are some questions to get you started:
If you want to host a screening of the movie in your community, please fill out this form.
Take a look here to see if there’s a screening near you.
*We would love for you to share this TTT any way that works for you, whether that’s on social media or via a newsletter. If you want to send it out in your newsletter we just ask that you credit us and link to our website, and let us know at lisa@screenagersmovie.com.
Stay in touch with the Screenagers community on Facebook, Twitter and leave comments below.
January 7, 2020
Thanksgiving evening I was sitting around with family in Berkeley as we cooked and talked. Phil, my cousin-in-law, all of a sudden said, “Hey, I just got this message” and he showed his phone to us. It said that when he posts things on Instagram, people could still give it a like, but people would only see that the post got a like, it would not show how many likes it got.
The amazing thing is that all posts in his feeds, his posts and everyone else’s, only showed that likes were given to a post, but not the number of likes.
When he opened his post, it still says at the top how many likes it had, but only he could do that.
My eyes immediately lit up. I knew and had written about how Instagram was hiding likes in other countries but had not heard about it in the US. It quickly made me think of my son, who during his gap year before college was often talking about how cool it would be to make a social media platform all about fostering positive connections, getting rid of likes and doing other things to promote a more positive social media experience.
Maybe Instagram is really going to do this. Last Spring, the company began hiding likes in several countries including Canada, Brazil, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, and New Zealand. This month, they brought the disappearing likes to a small number of US users, including Phil.
“Our interest in hiding likes really is just to depressurize Instagram for young people,” Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said in Business Insider earlier this month.
“It all comes down to making Instagram a safe and healthy place to spend time online, which is important for everyone’s mental health, but particularly Gen Z,” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, said at F8 earlier this year. “We want people to be less interested in how many likes a post gets, and focus more on connecting with other people.”
You will still be able to see likes on your posts just not everyone else’s, eliminating the “is theirs better than mine” comparisons that happen.
Right now, this is being tested with select groups with plans to roll out to more. That is why my cousin-in-law Phil had his Instagram changed. He was not asked beforehand and he could not have asked for it. It is random (or not random) who knows, but it was done all of a sudden on his account. He is indeed a beta tester now.
Many celebrity influencers responded positively to the change. Cardi B said removing likes is a step in the right direction but added that the comments section is often more damaging than the number of likes. “This is just my opinion… I mean what makes you feel more insecure getting no likes or people constantly giving opinions about you, your life, your topics?” she said in an early November post.
Kim Kardashian West agrees that taking away Instagram likes could be beneficial for our mental health. Attending the New York Times‘ DealBook Conference, Kim said: “As far as mental health, I think taking the likes away and taking that aspect away from [Instagram] would be really beneficial for people. I find myself to be extremely mentally strong and I have people who are obsessed with the comments, and I find that to be really unhealthy.”
“While the feedback from early testing has been positive, this is a fundamental change to Instagram,” Instagram’s PR department said to us in an email. “We’re continuing our test to learn more from our global community.” They told us that Facebook is also testing hiding likes on a smaller scale.
For this Tech Talk Tuesday, talk to your kids and teenagers about this. See if likes, or the lack thereof, truly matter to them. Or, are the comments where they feel the emotional hits?
Here are some questions to get you started:
If you want to host a screening of the movie in your community, please fill out this form.
Take a look here to see if there’s a screening near you.
*We would love for you to share this TTT any way that works for you, whether that’s on social media or via a newsletter. If you want to send it out in your newsletter we just ask that you credit us and link to our website, and let us know at lisa@screenagersmovie.com.
Stay in touch with the Screenagers community on Facebook, Twitter and leave comments below.
January 7, 2020
Today I’m writing about what the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on the Facebook Files tells us about what Facebook and Instagram know about “Likes” and what they are not telling us, and solutions on how we can help our youth with “Likes.”
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“I am a parent of two teenage daughters (16 and 14), both in high school. I am frustrated with how the schools encourage social media usage by using it for communication. The softball team communicates through Twitter. Clubs communicate through Instagram. The band uses Snapchat. How do we best encourage (request/demand) the schools to use non-social media platforms for activities, sports, and clubs?... Any advice?”
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In 2016 FB (and Instagram) asked me to come to their headquarters and show Screenagers to their adolescent division. I spoke about negative emotions that were happening to young people related to social media and my concerns about excessive use and addiction. Around that same time, Facebook was talking about developing a Facebook-type product for youth younger than 13. Fortunately, there was pushback from the public, and this never came to fruition. Our voices matter. We want to support our kids having a voice in this discussion. This week's Tech Talk Tuesday, gives you ideas about talking with your kids about the leaked papers that revealed that Facebook has been internally talking about how youth can have very negative emotions on social media but find it hard to pull away.
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.
