San Francisco (AFP)
Like or not like?
Instagram has still not resolved the thorny issue of the display of "likes" under photos and videos, linked to the potentially deleterious effects of the quest for validation from users on the networks.
After several tests where some people no longer saw the number of "likes" ("likes") collected by the contents, the popular Facebook application announced on Wednesday a new experiment, where users will decide for themselves what "works the best "for them.
They "will be able to decide to activate the option that suits them best, whether it is to choose not to see the number of likes on other people's publications, to deactivate the likes on their own publications or to keep the original experience ", details a press release.
In 2019, Instagram hid the "likes" for a small group of people, but results were mixed: some guinea pigs said they felt less pressure, but others missed the indicator, anxious to know what content works well and identify popular trends.
Affected users could no longer see how many "likes" were receiving other people's posts.
They still had access to the number of "likes" on their own posts, but by clicking on a different page.
“We are doing this experiment because we want our users to focus on the photos and videos shared, not the number of likes they collect,” an Instagram spokesperson said in July 2019. “We don't. don't want Instagram to seem like a competition. "
A study conducted in 2018 in the United States by the Pew Research Center showed that 72% of adolescents in the country used Instagram and that nearly 40% of them felt obligated to only share content that had garnered a lot of "likes" "or comments.
The frantic quest for "likes" "locks teens in a false bubble of perfection" which sends them back the image that they are "not up to the task," Michaël Stora, psychologist and president of the AFP told AFP. French Observatory of Digital Worlds, last October.
This new test, carried out at a global level, should make it possible to "understand whether the fact of giving more control to each user, to build the experience which suits them, helps to reduce the pressure in a relevant way", concludes Instagram.
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