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Tuesday, the Facebook-owned photo sharing application announced plans to conduct a test in Canada starting later this week, which hides the total number of "likes" on the photos and videos. Favorites, which appear as hearts in the application, will be removed from the main stream, permalink pages and profiles.
Although subscribers are not able to know the total number of mentions I like that a publication has received, the account owner still can.
"We are testing this because we want your subscribers to focus on the photos and videos you share, not on the number of likes they receive," said an Instagram spokesperson.
"Likes are powerful because they are an immediate return," said Renee Engeln, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University. "In a way, the likes give you the same kind of success that a player gets at a slot machine."
Engeln has told young women to tell him that their day could be spoiled when a job does not get enough of it. Sometimes they will even delete the photo.
While the removal of public tastes may cause users to publish more authentic content and feel less pressure on the platform, experts said it was not a quick fix.
"For teens, it's great because it would not show their popularity to other kids anymore," said Randi Priluck, professor and associate dean at Pace University, specializing in social media and mobile marketing. "But they will always see their tastes, people are very motivated by the rewards, so they will continue to compete for these tastes, and that will not solve the problem completely."
In addition, this does not address or correct some of the other factors that may affect the self-esteem of platform users, such as bullying, feeling of abandonment or thinking that other people's lives are better or more fascinating than theirs.
"None of this goes away when we take away the tastes," said Karen North, an expert in social media and psychology at the University of Southern California. "No matter if Instagram takes away tastes, you can not escape the inevitable: people will still compare their lives and feel inferior."
This change, if deployed more broadly, could also confuse influencer marketing. Social media stars working with brands on partnerships are often paid based on their engagement in their publications, and some of that involves "likes".
As a result, comments, number of subscribers or other measures could become more important for people who make money on Instagram.
"This will certainly create short-term inefficiencies in the way some of these deals will be concluded," said Kamiu Lee, CEO of Activate's influencer marketing platform. "In the long run, the industry will fix it, it will only shift attention to some of these other things."
At that time, an Instagram spokesman denied the rumors and said, "We are not testing it at the moment, but we are still looking for ways to reduce the pressure on Instagram."
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