The social platform Instagram tests hiding Likes feature to ‘Remove Pressure.’ Now people will be unable to see how many likes their friends receive.
Instagram rolled out the test in Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand. Users will still be able to see how many like their posts get, but when someone else goes to their post, the total number of likes will be absent.
Facebook director Mia Garlick stated that “We hope this test will remove the pressure of how many likes a post will receive, so you can focus on sharing the things you love.”
Instagram head Adam Mosseri said he wanted to create “a less pressurized environment where people feel comfortable expressing themselves,” rather than an environment where people delete posts that don’t rack up enough likes.
A 2017 study from the U.K. Royal Society for Public Health reported Instagram was the prevalent social app most detrimental to mental health for people, often exacerbating their depression, anxiety or body image issues. Instagram in particular makes young women “compare themselves against unrealistic, largely curated, filtered and Photoshopped versions of reality,” the report said.
Considering all of these scenarios Instagram rolls out the hidden like feature to keep away their users from depression.