Before I begin, I know I sound like a complete millennial who is talking absolute nonsense. I know there is so much more to explore than the number of likes someone gets, but the number of likes someone gets is all people care about now. And I believe that can change.
So before you ask me why, here are 10 reasons Instagram should provide the option to turn likes off completely.
It's all we care about.
From going on fabulous vacations to spending the day in your living room, there will always be a time where you MUST pick up your phone, click Instagram, and check your "progress." If you end up posting something, the real post will matter after you look at the number of likes you got.
Countless conversations start with "you should follow me on Instagram and like all my posts!" We truly can't have meaningful conversations anymore with this huge distraction.
It can change your attitude toward vacations.
What's the point of going to beautiful places or to relax if we keep thinking about how/what we are going to post? If we don't get the "perfect" post, we won't be able to post it because if no one likes it, that means that, well, no one likes your post.
Instead, you could have explored, lived in the moment and had a great time without thinking about Instagram at all.
Unnecessary stress levels get involved.
Before, I was mentioning how you can easily get worried which causes stress. We start to become stressed with how many likes, or even comments, we will get and if we don't get as many as we expected, we start to overthink and stress over the people who do like us and who don't when really, it could be that they simply did not have time to like your post.
At any point in time, you'll never be satisfied.
50 likes? 100 likes? Or maybe 200? When will your expectations drop? People will get more followers and more likes and you'll realize that likes are just going to go up to no end so why worry about it? You will never end up being satisfied unless you don't care to begin with.
You will question your self-worth because of a simple number.
Your self-worth should never be defined by a number but unfortunately likes do that. We start to compare ourselves to other stars or famous celebrities who get a massive amount of likes for their "cool" post, and suddenly, we want to be like them, which cuts our self-esteem.
You might start to think about quantity over quality.
Our posts are supposed to create content for ourselves and for other people. As long as we like our posts, that is what matters but once our likes vary from one post to another, quality goes away and it's all about what everyone will like instead.
We WILL begin to compare our success, lifestyle, and even our appearance to others.
No matter what we say, subconsciously we will begin to compare our entire lifestyles to people who are not us. We could stop and focus on priorities.
If Instagram decides to get rid of likes, you've trained yourself to think about that more than your priorities.
If Instagram eventually decides to get rid of likes, all the time we have spent worrying about likes will build up and that is all you will think about especially if you're the type of person to care about everything other than our actual lives.
Getting rid of likes would help us focus more on our lifestyle and what we really need to focus on.
If you aren't already addicted to your phone, prepare yourself.
If there is a post of yours that you really liked, it's natural to think that a bunch of people would like you post so, picking up your phone every 2 minutes is natural, but eventually you won't be able to stop and that's where it gets unhealthy.
Pressure to get the "ideal" post is put upon you.
When will we realize that there is no "ideal" post? We don't need to be like anyone else, especially because of something so little like Instagram. There will never be a perfect post, and if someone doesn't like your picture, it isn't the end of the world. If you like your own content, then that is really all that matters.
