What Will the World do Without Likes?
The article chosen talks about the most recent update that Instagram has launched in the United States. Instagram has already implemented the feature in seven other countries and has continued now in the U.S. by deciding to remove likes from posts. There has been a lot of discussion about how this will affect the platform in terms of usage. The people behind this change have said that their attempt is to help the younger community on the app. The argument is that there is a lot of pressure and competition with receiving likes on posts and that this is a negative aspect for the younger crowd. Some celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian, are in support of this change and think that it is a positive step forward for the app. Other influencers are threatening to stop using the app altogether. Influencers and businesses go hand in hand as the businesses have seen that there is “a correlation between ‘likes’ and sales” and that “they have also come to rely on the platform for marketing or even as a revenue source”. That being said, it will be interesting to trace how this change actually alters the app in the near future.
This article can be related to a few different topics that we have seen in this course. For example, this is similar to the homework problem where we talked about the change from the 80s to now and the “boom or bust” effect. I would argue that “likes” on Instagram may be similar to this, in that when scrolling if someone sees that a post has a lot of likes they may be more likely to stop and look at the post. In another sense, if a photo has a lot of likes and someone is mindlessly scrolling then they might have liked it as well based off the number shown. In terms of the “bust” part, if no one is liking the photo, then someone may be unlikely to stop to look at the post or like it either. I think this also relates to information cascades, in that the number of likes could encourage someone to either follow a new account or purchase an item. As stated, businesses have been using likes as a type of marketing strategy. Therefore, if a certain brand had tens of thousands of likes, or if an influencer representing this brand did, then there is potential it could bring in more money for the company. Some people might even decide to purchase simply because they believe the product is popular, without even doing the research or seeing if the product is a right fit for them individually. Therefore, the likes could lead to a type of cascade based on popularity, in that it draws new customers to a product.
https://footwearnews.com/2019/business/retail/instagram-removing-likes-brands-impact-1202871377/