29/09/2019
FACEBOOK TESTS HIDING 'LIKES' ON SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS
The social network already started the test in Australia, where people’s Likes, video view counts and other measurements of posts would become private to other users.
For years, people who use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have chased Likes as a status symbol. More Likes on a social media post meant it was popular, engaging and worthwhile.
To gain Likes, people were sometimes motivated to post messages and videos that they had calibrated to go viral. That helped lead to a proliferation of violent, radical or otherwise extremist content on social media.
Under the experiment, people could still see the number of likes on their own posts, but the number will not be publicly displayed creating a less pressurized environment.
Without a big number of likes on friends’ posts that could make users feel insignificant, or a low number on their own posts announcing their poor reception, users might feel more carefree on Facebook. The removal could also reduce herd mentality, encouraging users to decide for themselves if they enjoyed a post rather than just blindly clicking to concur with everyone else.
What do you think about Facebook's move?
