‘Likes’ and Your Mental Health

A friend of mine had spent hours debating whether she should post a photo of hers, which was lovely. Once it was up on Instagram, she was actively watching the ‘Like’ count. The ‘Likes’ it gained had some sort of correlation on how beautiful she was on the photo or how great her post was. If it didn’t have her ideal number of interactions, she vowed to delete the photo. It was crazy how she valued her followers and their interactions so much. In high school, teachers gave us projects which we had post online and garner a certain number of ‘Likes’. If we didn’t reach our goal, it would have had an impact on our grade. It was crazy to think that the number of interactions we received had acclaimed a big impact in our learning. How do these companies discourage this culture?

In an article by Rhys Knight (2019), Instagram, who made a move to make the ‘Like’ count invisible to anyone except the person who posted the photo/video, the move of hiding likes is not a move towards mental health; it’s a move towards higher ad revenues, more interactions on the app, and some sort of marketing strategy as well. “Instagram is the most detrimental social networking app for young people’s mental health, followed closely by Snapchat, according to a new report by the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK.” (Fox, 2017) This removal of the ‘Like’ count followed after articles surfaced about Instagram’s drastic effects on mental health. It was tailored to make consumers think that they are making a stand or a movement, but turned out to be a business strategy.

With this in mind, how can one truly achieve a better mental state? It is important to evaluate how you use social media; it can vary from person to person. I found myself doing the same thing as my friend – counting the ‘Likes’ and doubting whether it was a terrible decision to post that photo. My goal was to keep that out of my system, and I shifted my usage to sharing more of what I love, passions, and goals. Social media is what you make out of it. Make good choices.

Sources:

Fox, K. (2017, May 19). Instagram worst app for young people’s mental health. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/19/health/instagram-worst-social-network-app-young-people-mental-health/index.html

Knight, R. (2019, November 20). Why Instagram Removing Likes Has Nothing to Do With Users. Retrieved from https://www.plannthat.com/instagram-removing-likes/

11 thoughts on “‘Likes’ and Your Mental Health

  1. I feel like this is a constant debate. Technology versus our mental states. I for one, completely empathize with this post. I have many times caught myself looking at likes and comments on a picture and sometimes even comparing it to others. A couple weeks ago I challenged myself to delete social media and see what would happen. I was going to delete instagram and snapchat (pretty much the only 2 social medias I use) for 3 days and see what happened. I loved it. I ended up keeping them deleted for almost two weeks. I’m not really sure why I downloaded it again, but when I didn’t have the apps I definitely felt a little better mentally – I was enjoying the moment more. I think since then I have used these apps more as a way to connect with people, and less in a way to compare myself from others. Sometimes we all just need a little break from social media to reprioritize. It’s scary to think how much time spent on social media can affect someone’s mental health.

    Source: https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/does-time-spent-on-social-media-affect-mental-health-326267

  2. I do agree that social media is hurting our mental health. People find value in how many likes they get on their posts, and if their post is considered “trendy”. But I do think social media is on its way to become a positive impact in our lives. Social media influencers who use their accounts to showcase good energy are helping some people better their view on the world. I know a lot of my friends all follow certain people because they value what they post & that their posts aren’t “fake”, but genuine. The positivity coming from some influencers are helping people becoming more positive themselves.

  3. Society has formed an obsession over getting a certain number of likes and comments and it is definitely taking toll on mental health. Users relate the number of likes on a post to popularity and relatability. If they are not receiving as many likes as others are, it can lower their mental well-being and make them feel insecure.

    Instagram is starting to remove the like feature from the platform. As of right now, they are just testing it out with randomly selected candidates. Even if this change leads to a negative effect on business for influencers and brand-sponsored posts, Instagram still plans on making this change. According to CEO Adam Mosseri, the societal pressures caused by the app “are becoming more acute, particularly with young people, particularly in a mobile-first world.” The plan is to make likes not visible to others, so the person who made the post is the only one who can see their total number of likes. The hope is to create a safer social media environment and disassociate social media with anxiety.

    I think the idea behind this is great and they mean well, but I don’t know how effective it will be. Even though we won’t be able to see how many likes other people are receiving, there still may be stress or anxiety over how many likes we are receiving personally.

    Source:
    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-removing-likes-from-instagram-could-affect-our-mental-health

  4. This blog post is so easy to relate to as I am a young female who values feelings accepted. The easiest way to achieve that feeling is through social media such as instagram. The likes and comments are feeding a part of my brain that almost feels like a drug. It can become addictive and only gets worse and worse. By instagram removing the likes except for the person posting still does not help our mental health. We can still personally see how many people have interacted with our post.
    I personally agree with the fact that you believe this was solely a business move and not actually anything to do with caring about how it will affect the mental health of everyone who uses it. This sounds like a great idea and step towards more positive mindsets when it comes to posting on social media but it actually has not seemed to help improve much. The problem that they are trying to so desperately fix concerns the individuals mindset and self esteem. It is not going to be fixed by removing the amount of likes someone gets, but actually will only fix itself when the individual put the hards work in themselves and believes they are worth it no matter how much attention their post gets. Social media is slowly destroying the mental health of my generation and I am just as much guilty of giving into it as everyone else has. I think instagram removing the amount of likes was purely a business move to avoid further backlash of what instagram actually does to our minds

    .https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/14/tech/instagram-hiding-likes-globally/

    https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/social-media-mental-health-negative-effects-depression-anxiety-addiction-memory-a8307196.html

  5. I think we all know someone who is like this or may even be like this ourselves. It’s honestly hard not to be because of the society we are growing up in. Rebecca Jennings writes, “A recent survey of almost 1,500 British young people showed that Instagram was considered the worst social media network for health and wellbeing, associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness” (par. 13). It is easy to say that Instagram is a great platform to spread positivity and express yourself however the reality is that we cannot help but constantly compare our lives to other people’s. Instagram has made an effort to take away the like feature on posts, which I think is an interesting and potentially great step made by the platform to reduce people’s obsession with likes and outside opinions on themselves. However, I have heard that likes were taken away for months now, but I personally can still see them and I know a lot of my friends can too. I think it is good that Instagram realizes the app has created some negative affects on people’s mental health, despite the positive ones, and are making an effort to alter their app. Overall, social media is not going anywhere. We should really all be using it for good because it is so powerful in our world today.

    https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/12/2/20983760/instagram-removing-likes-authenticity

  6. I can relate to this post because so many people I know care way too much about the amount of likes they get on their posts. It has come to point where I know people that will not post a picture that they love because it does not match the “color aesthetic” that their page has. Or, they won’t post it because the person in the picture is posed awkwardly, and their claim is that it will alter the amount of likes they get. It seems that if you get a big amount likes on a post, your life is better and more favorable than the people that do not get as many likes. When Instagram announced that they will be removing the feature that allows you to see how many likes someone got, I remember my entire group message of girls were freaking out and so upset about it. Even though the update still allows you to see the likes you get, they were upset that other people won’t be able to see. The fact that people are so upset over this future update announcement is proof that there is a problem. People are relying on the amount of likes they get to determine their validity. This is so unhealthy and is most likely causing mental health issues. I constantly find myself comparing others that get a plethora of likes to my own posts, and I feel like I would not do that as much if I could not see the likes. I think Instagram is doing the right thing with this update because it can save the mental health of younger generations that have grown up believing that likes determine their status. I 100% have at some point felt not good enough because of the amount of likes I had received. When I first signed up for Instagram, I did not sign up for this. I signed up to be able to simply share my life with others and be able to look into their lives, but it has turned into an unhealthy platform that makes you feel deficient and unacceptable if you don’t achieve the amount of likes that you were anticipating. After reading your post, I have come to the conclusion that even if Instagram does not care about our mental health and it may just be a business tactic, I still believe this new update will positively impact the mental health of most users on this platform.

    Fox, K. (2017, May 19). Instagram worst app for young people’s mental health. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/19/health/instagram-worst-social-network-app-young-people-mental-health/index.html
    Knight, R. (2019, November 20). Why Instagram Removing Likes Has Nothing to Do With Users. Retrieved from https://www.plannthat.com/instagram-removing-likes/

  7. After reading your post I started reading articles about this topic. Many articles talk about how Instagram removed ‘likes’ from being publicly viewed. They did this to help users mental health because Instagram has become a very toxic environment where users have become obsessed with getting likes. I can’t help to think if Instagram had other reasons to removing likes from pictures. My initial thought was that countless users have gotten ‘Instagram famous’ and are now influencers making a living being an influencer. Instagram is not able to monetize the money these influencers are making from brands and I have a feeling that upset them. Removing likes makes it difficult for influencers because they are unsure what their followers truly like because they don’t know if they are short on likes because their followers don’t like the content or the algorithm of users pages does not allow every follower to see then image. This is an extremely interesting topic because I think it can be good for users mental health and make Instagram a more relaxed place, but also influencers will suffer damages to their Instagram brand. In my opinion, I like the no likes. I do not care what I post on Instagram and removing likes will allow others to do as I do!

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-49026935

  8. I personally find this kind of thinking stupid, if you care about your “numbers” so much, it’ll blind you from the people who actually care for you and are legitimately there for you in times of need. I find people that legitimately care for you a lot more worthy and precious than just some “numbers” for fame, so what if your numbers went down? why does that matter? why care so much about such a simple thing that you let it affect your mental state like that.

    Honestly, a better mental method is to get them off social media and start understanding relationships and friends more than just your “clout” or how much attention you get. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter and you should know your own self-worth.

  9. Originally, when I discovered Instagram was doing away with likes I thought it was a great idea. I have always been one who has cared extremely with the amount of likes I receive on a picture. If I do not get as many or more than the last picture, I am really hard on myself. It got to the point last school year that I deleted my Instagram app for about 6 months because I could tell it was affecting my mental health. Now that I read your post and the article, I come to find out that Instagram, yet again, only cares about the business side of getting rid of likes and it saddens me. I really believed for a few weeks that Instagram cared about those who are just like me that care so much about the amount of likes. I will even admit that if I see someone has a lot of followers and their pictures do not get a lot of likes, their followers, seem bought or fake. I hated the fact that I was so hard on myself for this social acceptance with my pictures and how I compared others to myself. Even if Instagram is only looking out for themselves in this, I am happy that I will not be focusing on if people see how many likes I actually get or how many they end up getting. Instagram is meant to be fun and share the most memorable moments, not to make you feel worse when leaving the addicting app.

  10. Ever since Facebook became more popular in the late 2000s/early 2010s, social media likes have been the main focus of these platforms. I would argue that this has consumed a whole generation of young adults and teenagers. Our current generation (those born between 1995-2001) are a good case study as to the impact of social media and the constant gratitude desired from it. The first experience of social media I had was in middle school when I first joined Facebook. Even at that age, the perception was that having the most friends and the most likes on post was always the goal. As time goes by, that constant pressure to keep up with contemporaries can have a significant impact on the mental health of the user, especially for someone at such a young age.

    Personally, I was pleased to hear that Instagram was removing likes. Although I don’t think it is a perfect fix, I do think it is a step in the right direction of minimizing the competitiveness that comes with who has the most likes. Because Facebook is the parent company of Instagram, I hope that Facebook would also adopt this policy. For the time being, it is yet to be known how effective the change in likes will be in regards to the mental health of its users.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-49026935

  11. I agree with you that “likes” on social media can be detrimental to mental health. As someone who has been using Instagram since it was released in 2010, I have definitely felt the negative effects and pressures caused by the application. At the beginning, Instagram was an awesome platform for posting photography, memes, and overall just sharing things about your life. However, as the application increased in users and the first “Instagram celebrities” emerged, Instagram started to feel more like a popularity contest than a fun and creative space to express your interests. At one point in time, I would feel awful if my Instagram post did not receive a certain amount of likes, especially when posting photos of myself. I remember mindlessly scrolling through the “like-for-like” hashtags and liking as many random posts as I could in hopes that some random people would return the favor on my recent post. I think that the problem with like counts on photos is how easy it is for users to like a post. You either tap the heart on the bottom left or double-tap the photo, with both actions taking less than a second and making the action of “liking” something practically meaningless. So, if it’s that easy, people not liking my posts must really not like them. This mentality caused me to feel very self conscious and overall very insecure when it came to using social media. Since I am sure I am not the only one that has felt this way when using Instagram and other social media platforms, I am fully supportive of Instagram hiding like counts on other user’s posts. While I do not think that it will completely remove the pressure of not receiving enough likes, it will at least take away the pressure that comes with other people being able to see whether your post did not receive a desirable amount of attention. As said in an article by Business Insider, hiding like counts on posts will help “create a less pressurized environment where people feel comfortable expressing themselves”. In essence, I believe that social media is meant to be a creative environment in it’s very essence, not a popularity contest. By removing public like counts, Instagram will likely become a much more enjoyable platform and social media community to be a member of.

    Source:
    https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-removing-likes-what-it-will-look-like-2019-11

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