I saw a post on LinkedIn that brought up an “old discussion” of whether or not Instagram should get rid of likes. The basic premise is that likes lead to jealousy and develop unwanted behaviors from overuse, to addiction, etc… Instagram of course benefits from that and so do the users.
I hadn’t thought of this before this morning, but likes are kind of like currency on Instagram except they are not explicitly traded. Also there is a clear class system based on followers/like counts. There are ways to move between classes but not much, and generally people don’t pass “upper middle class”. Let me break it down a bit. Of course, these vary heavily on age, since different demographics use the site more/more heavily.
Poverty - Not many followers, their posts are largely ignored. This is where everyone starts but can move out depending on their REAL LIFE social circle and their activity on Instagram. They’re excited when they get 10 likes on something.
Lower class - Where most people stay, this is the people with maybe a few hundred followers. Their following is probably mostly people they know but not necessarily. However, when it comes to people liking their photos it’s probably one out of every handful. Let’s say they start to get around 50.
Middle class - I’m here I think, as are most millennials. Several hundred followers and on good posts, over a hundred likes. Even with good content, there is somewhat of a ceiling that could be broken through more consistent posting, activity on the timeline, using lots of hashtags, or creating content. Up until this point, you don’t really have to do anything to get here.
Upper middle class - These people aren’t actual celebrities but they act like it. They’re probably selling something, have professional photos or ones they’ve taken on a real camera and uploaded on IG. They' spend time on their image and have been rewarded thousands of followers for it. A lot of time it’s just a good looking girl taking advantage of the internet’s desires. Other times it’s guys who make youtube videos. It could mean a lot of things. These folks have multiple thousands - hundred thousand followers. They get enough likes and messages they don’t check their notifications anymore. Messages probably take a while to get responded to. This tier is where Instagram begins to feel more like a brand page than a communication platform.
Upper class - Many of these people are real celebrities, from the outside world. Others have become celebrities online. These people are brands and so they make money off of the milions of views they’re getting. Either directly - through ads, merch shops, events, etc.. or Indirectly - brand loyalty, etc.. that carries into the real world profits they make; think Dwayne Johnson not advertising on his IG but since you like him as a person, you’ll go see his movies. Doubtful they respond to much, if they do it’s sporadic. Many use Twitter as a better way to communicate with fans. Many also hire staff/PR/Brand Managers to manage pages and design content. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve become a brand, so you’ve got to maintain your image.
So with regards to getting rid of likes, it would probably affect the well being of the lesser groups, especially among young people who have yet to learn to deal with jealousy. But for the “businesses”, it takes away a gauge of how successful posts are. If I recall they were going to allow stats to be private - so maybe in the business tools of IG they would let you view and share the information and it would only be a surface level change.
Either way, I don’t see IG folding under the pressure since the like count is what drives people’s creativity and desire to make good content and not just post a selfie of them on the couch. At least that’s my opinion as of this morning.
This has been a fun, meaningless post. But thinking about the comparisons are interesting in a time when much of the political fervor is against the wealthy elites, etc… Anyways, hope you enjoyed it. Let me know your thoughts, I’m always down to talk about weird things like this.