Instagram’s New Feature To Hide ‘Likes’ Might Be The Solution To Insecurity on Social Media
Comparison is truly a thief of joy.
Instagram recently announced that it was testing a new feature- one that hides the number of likes and views a picture or video gets and, honestly, it's about time.
Let's be honest here- social media has torn this generation apart. We're all SO focused on the best things to post, what we shouldn't post, how many followers someone has, how many likes they have, etc. The list is truly never-ending.
At one point or another, we've all been scrolling through social media and saw a post from someone and thought something along the lines of, “Why can't I pull off something like that?" “Why can't I be that tan?" “I wish I was as fit as them." And that, too, is a list that goes on forever (and ever).
What we don't realize is that social media is a highlight of someone's life. What we don't see (which can be called the 'behind the scenes') is someone's worst moments. We don't see when their hair is a mess. We don't see when they have a massive breakout. We don't see when they're bloated and don't feel comfortable in a swimsuit. We see their BEST moments and that is what most people don't realize. We're so used to comparing our behind the scenes to someone else's highlights and we automatically wonder why we can't have highlights like them.
Yeah, that swimsuit model looks great and all, but she also has her bad days. She doesn't always have super tan skin with beautifully curled hair and a perfect contour.
Sure, that male athlete has abs and shows off his super healthy meals, but you don't see what he eats on his cheat day.
You are more than what you see on social media. You are worth more than the number of likes you get. Your worth is NOT low because you have 1 like, just like your worth isn't more just because you have 100 or 1,000 likes.
All of the numbers that you see on social media are exactly that- numbers. Nothing more, nothing less.
This new feature is long overdue. It's time for us to start focusing on the content that people post, rather than if they got 1 like or 1,000 likes.
And remember, a flower doesn't compete to the flower next to it- it just blooms.
