Instagram is running the trial to hide likes and comments
Based on a study by RSPH and Young Health Movement
Instagram is running the trial to hide likes and comments on its post in six countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand.
Apparently, all this began due to a study by RSPH and the Young Health Movement. The report examined the positive and negative effects of social media on young people’s health.
It created a league table of social media platforms according to there impact on the mental health of users. In that table Instagram and Snapchat were clearly the worst platforms with a detrimental effect on the user’s mental health, wherein Youtube was at the top of the table with the most positive effect.
Social media has become a space in which we form and build relationships, shape self-identity, express ourselves, and learn about the world around us; it is intrinsically linked to mental health.
Shirley Cramer CBE, Chief Executive, RSPH
Instagram was receiving a lot of flake off lately for not giving much attention to the impact of the app on the mental health on young users. The hunger for likes and achieving “Internet Stardom” overnight is having a long-lasting physical and mental impact on the users.
However, if you look closely the impact is not limited to likes and comments. The “anxiety game” starts from the number of followers to likes to how many people watched there story.
Comments as new likes?
In the likely absence of likes, comments will mostly become the actual indicator of the popularity of a particular post. This will at least create some sort of “break” in the mindless scrolling on the app and create some real engagement.
Some of the users who run there business through Instagram are not too happy with the move and feel that it will have a negative impact on there intended sales.
Instagram clearly knew this for a very long time, but it is only recently started taking actions on it. According to there Twitter post, they have concluded the trial in Canada.
It will be interesting to see how honestly Instagram put forths it’s finding with of course an action plan. Or all this turns out to be a cleverly disguised PR exercise by Instagram. Let’s hope it is not and they do something substantial to curb the negative impact of social media.
Further Reading
1. RSPH “StatusofMind” report can be downloaded from here
2. The trial announcement by Instagram on Twitter
3. Instagrams accessibility features for visually impaired.
This story was originally published on Appedus.
