Facebook is considering hiding the Like count from posts

[midian182]

A hot potato: Are you the type of person who gets anxious over the amount of Likes a Facebook post receives? If so, here’s some good news: The social network could start hiding its Like counter from News Feed posts—something the company is already testing in the Instagram app.

As she has done with so many other unreleased app features, it was prolific researcher Jane Manchun Wong who discovered Facebook was testing hidden Like counts in its Android app. It’s not yet available to users, but the company confirmed to TechCrunch that it is considering hiding its most well-known method of publicly approving posts.

Back in April, Wong, who also discovered that Facebook could be bringing back its Chat tool, found that Instagram was testing hiding its Like count from audiences. While the person who posted an image would know how many Likes it receives, everyone else would only see a couple of names/faces followed by “and others,” rather than exact numbers. The change is being tested in Canada, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, and Japan.

Facebook is working to hide like counts, too!https://t.co/WnUrM12aZg

Tip @Techmeme pic.twitter.com/TdT73wT6A0

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) September 2, 2019

In the Facebook test, each type of user reaction to a post is shown, but, like Instagram, only the creator will see exactly how many and who reacted.

With Facebook confirming it may hide Likes in the main app, it appears the Instagram tests show the positive aspects of such a change outweigh any potential negatives.

With many social media users, especially younger people, feeling pressurized to come up with popular posts, removing the Like count could be beneficial when it comes to protecting people’s mental health. It should also help reduce users’ anxiety—no more comparing themselves to those who always receive hundreds of Likes. With more people abandoning Facebook for other apps, could the move encourage casual users to post more content, or drive away long-term fans of the platform?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/81704-facebook-considering-removing-like-count-posts.html

 

[seeprime]

Only their advertising "partners" will have access, eh? Nothing Facebook is doing is good for users.

 

[rub900]

Who even uses Facebook any more? I have not been on fb in years. I have an account and never post anything. My wife deleted her account last month. Fb is boring and they sell your data. Hope they go out of business.

 

[PEnnn]

Whoa!! That will really screw up the egos of 99% of Bookface users!!

 

[GreenNova343]

It will do nothing to alleviate any worry on social media users' part as to how "popular" or not their posts are. Remember, they can still see how many likes they have...& all a friend/rival/bully has to do is pull up their posts (the equivalent of "pics or it didn't happen") showing that their posts had more than yours (or even just sharing a screenshot of said post, which will show exactly how many likes you've received).

The only reason I can think of for Facebook to do this is damage control. "Look, we removed the obvious flag about how many or few 'friends' your little darlings have, so it's not our fault if they feel depressed because 'nobody likes them online', it must be somebody else's fault". Which it is, of course; but Facebook is probably tired of being the handy scapegoat.

 

[Zorak]

Damn, it seems like recently the only way social media thinks to improve itself is to become... less social?