Instagram to start hiding your likes by next week! Is this a good move?

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Since the beginning of Instagram's time, we've always been able to see how many likes were given on posts. Now Instagram plans to remove this privilege in an attempt to "become the safest app on the internet".  There is tons of debates from both sides of the spectrum, but what would this really affect? Can it affect the modeling, blogger and fashion community as a whole?

According to wired.com, "Instagram isn’t the only company that is attempting to remove publicly available engagement metrics from their platform. Facebook (which owns Instagram), YouTube, and Twitter have all experimented with removing engagement metrics from their platforms. As WIRED previously reported, social media researchers have argued that when users tailor their content to whatever garners the most engagement (or outrage), the result is a radicalized environment that makes healthy, happy conversations almost impossible. Hiding like counts is just the latest step in Instagram’s quest to become the safest place on the internet, along with algorithms and filters to remove offensive or divisive comments or pictures. But the move hasn’t come without panicked pushback from users, who, among other complaints, note that hiding engagement metrics will make it harder to determine whose follower count is legitimate. It’s still too early to gauge whether social media demetrication improves a user’s mental health or the quality of online discourse. Still, Instagram is quickly becoming the “mental health lab of our era,” as Pardes noted. If nothing else, it could be an important step to bringing users back to platforms that they have been using less frequently or abandoning."

I believe this is a good move for our social society. We rely to heavily on the validation or (likes) from our peers to determine our self worth. I know I have been guilty of deleting my own posts if it doesn't get a certain amount of likes in a certain amount of time. I think to myself "was this content not received well with my audience? Is it just not good enough"....but how healthy is that way of thinking? Social media has lost its social impact...people are no longer being creative, instead, they tend to only post what will get the most likes no matter the context. 

We will for sure see it's impact as the likes become removed.