Breaking news is, like, @facebook is considering removing ‘Like’ 👍🏽 totals on the platform.
Josh Constine of @techcrunch reports: “The idea is to prevent users from destructively comparing themselves to others and possibly feeling inadequate if their posts don’t get as many Likes.”
Facebook’s move might signal that @instagram’s recent experiment in 7 countries with a similar feature is succeeding. The era of the Big Like could be ending and it’s a welcome sign that the #technology world is responding to the growing realisation about what technology is doing to humanity as we live our day to day lives out on #socialmedia.
Evan Spiegel, Cofounder and CEO of @snapchat, has also weighed in on the dark side of social media.
“The personalized newsfeed revolutionized the way people share and consume content,” he wrote in Axios.
“But let’s be honest: this came at a huge cost to facts, our minds and the entire media industry.”
He also acknowledged the fundamental paradox (or contradiction) of social media: “This is a challenging problem to solve because the obvious benefits that have driven the growth of social media – more friends! 🙋🏼♀️ more likes! 👍🏽 more free content! ✅ – are also the things that will undermine it in the long run.”
What do you think about the social media LIKES currency?
Should it stay or go? 👍🏽👎🏽