• About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Write for us
  • Contact
  • Terms of service
Saturday, June 25, 2022
The Millennial Source
TMS
Home WORLD

Instagram is hiding the number of likes on posts partially because of a ‘Black Mirror’ episode

January 22, 2020
in WORLD
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin



A recent decision to get rid of public “likes” on Instagram was influenced by a popular episode of the Netflix series, “Black Mirror.” Instagram’s CEO, Adam Mosseri, revealed this fact in an interview with The New York Times published last week.

This decision, which is still in a testing phase, has been met by resistance from the photo app’s loyal users. Other social media companies have similarly faced dissent when attempting to make changes to their platform.

Instagram is changing likes

In April 2019, a user on Twitter named Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) posted that Instagram was “testing hiding like counts from audiences.” After initially denying the change, the company confirmed at its F8 developer conference less than two weeks later that they were testing out this new design feature.

According to The New York Times interview, the change is known as “Project Daisy.” With the new system, the number of “likes” (given by other users by pressing the heart symbol or double-clicking the image) a post receives is only visible to the original poster. Previously, all users could see a running total of how many likes a photo received.

While the change is still in testing, the interview with Mosseri indicates that it’s a change he believes in. He thinks it will make the user experience on Instagram better and less “pressurized.” He doesn’t want users to feel pressured to compare themselves to users with more likes.

Instagram influenced by Black Mirror

Mosseri specifically mentioned the change being influenced by an episode of the popular British show, “Black Mirror.” Though the specific episode isn’t named in the interview, Business Insider speculated the description indicates it was likely the third season episode, “Nosedive.”

That episode stars Bryce Dallas Howard as a woman obsessed with building up her social media score, attained through likes and user engagement. The episode involves Howard’s character experiencing a series of mishaps on the way to the wedding of a childhood friend. In the world of the episode, people’s social media scores are viewable at all times, which ultimately affects their real lives.

While Netflix rarely releases viewing numbers for their shows, “Nosedive” has been often ranked as one of the top episodes of “Black Mirror.” The show, an anthology science fiction series about the effects of technology, began airing episodes on Netflix in 2011 and has released five seasons and one film so far.

[article_ad]

Backlash to the change

Changes to online platforms are rarely received positively – at least initially – but for this change, Instagram’s most vocal critics are also some of its biggest users, a group known as “influencers.”

Instagram influencers are content creators who use the platform to build up an audience and frequently garner sponsorship deals to advertise products in their feed. Influencers are often artists, models, or celebrities who accumulate hundreds of thousands of followers or more.

Some of these influencers are worried brands seeking advertising partners will pass them up without visible likes to prove their reach. Artists have also said, according to the Guardian, being able to see the number of likes on a post allows followers to know their work is “high quality.” That helps them build up a following.

Even celebrities with established fan bases have voiced skepticism at the change. Rapper and singer Nicki Minaj tweeted in Nov. 2019 that she was no longer posting on Instagram because “they removing the likes.”

The difficulty of changing a social media platform

Social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter have billions of users worldwide. That generally means that changes to their platforms are difficult to be universally beloved by all users.

In Sept. 2011, for instance, after Facebook implemented a “Top Stories” feature in the website’s news feed, many of the users complained about the change. In the early days of Facebook, users were shown posts from their “friends” in chronological order. Facebook changed the feed so its own algorithms determined what appeared in the feed first.

Nearly a decade later, though users can still sort their feed by “most recent,” the Top Stories feature is now the default. As a developer at the time of the change said, it is intended to help users see the most relevant content if they hadn’t been online in a while.

In June 2016, Instagram also embraced sorting algorithms for user feeds instead of the strict chronological order. Many users were unhappy about that change as well, so while Instagram didn’t return to chronological order, they did implement changes to the algorithm to focus on more recent posts.

In May 2014, Twitter made a minor change, more specifically, to its default font, from Helvetica Neue to Gotham. Users complained, and by September of that year, Helvetica Neue had returned to the platform.

[article_ad]

Related

Tags: BusinessLonger read
ShareTweetShare

Latest Posts

Australia mining

Western Australia’s mining industry probe uncovers numerous cases of sexual abuses

June 24, 2022
Juul banned

The US orders Juul vapes off the market. Here’s what you need to know

June 24, 2022
Elon Musk Qatar

What did Elon Musk say at the Qatar Economic Forum?

June 22, 2022

Forever 21 gives China another go with a new store opening this month

June 16, 2022

Following better-than-expected economic data, China stocks rally

June 16, 2022

A new chapter for McDonald’s in Russia

June 13, 2022

Twitter is opening a “firehose” of data on Elon Musk

June 10, 2022

With hiring paused, wage hikes curtailed and reports of job slashes – is the job market leveling out?

June 6, 2022

Who’s Meta’s new COO, Javier Olivan?

June 3, 2022

SUBSCRIBE TO THE TMS NEWSLETTER

By providing your email, you agree to our Privacy Policy

The Millennial Source Ltd. 2021

No Result
View All Result
  • Your daily briefing
  • About us
  • Explore
    • Startups
    • Climate change
    • Tech giants
    • Crypto
    • The future of work
    • Banking giants
    • Economy
  • Lifestyle
  • Human stories
  • TMS archives
  • Write for us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy & Terms

2022 The Millennial Source Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

string(24) "jsonld single post debug"
The Millennial Source
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.