Are you conscious of the Like counts on your social media posts? Well, look no further because Facebook and Instagram recently begin to give users the option to hide Like counts on their respective posts. These two are the most widely used social media platforms today. And due to the current pandemic, the number of users and hours spent on both sites has evidently increased.

In this time, Like counts on social media posts have become a basis of relevance and popularity, especially with the growing number of so-called social media “influencers”. This function has been in the works and trials since 2019. The idea aims to depressurize and normalize user experience, which will eventually prevent anxiety and embarrassment over social media posts that didn’t gain “enough” Likes. This predicament is more common to gen-z and millennial users, who immensely hold in high esteem on what others think of them. Instagram has also become a medium where many people post to score clout and reputation. Users tend to be anxious and insecure because of the popular posts they see.On Facebook, users can opt to use the new setting from the “Settings & Privacy” area under News Feed Settings (or News Feed Preferences on desktop). From here, you’ll see an option to “Hide number of reactions”. Meanwhile, on Instagram, you can access this feature by going to the post you would want the Like counts to be hidden. From there you will see a set of three dots on the upper-right corner, which contains the “Hide Like Count” option.

In this “Like-free” sensible space, users can now engage with peers or the common public without trying to gain fame points. After all, social networking sites were created for people to stay connected with friends, family, and colleagues.