Tech giant Facebook may stop showing like counts in the near future according to certain sources. The idea behind removing like counts is that this will protect users from envy and divert them from self-censorship. While this has already been in testing by Instagram in 7countries including Canada and Brazil where it shows just a few names of mutual friends who’ve Liked it instead of the total number. The idea is to avoid customers from comparing themselves destructively with others and feeling insufficient if they do not receive so many likes. It will also prevent users from removing posts that they think don’t get enough likes.
Reverse Engineering master Jane Manchun Wong was the first one to come out with this news. After this news, Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s considering testing removal of Like counts. However it’s not live for users yet. Facebook will probably do this gradually and pull back if it hurts the usage or ad income considerably.
Removing Like counts could put less stress on users and promote them to post more freely and more commonly. It could also be a tactic to hide Facebook’s own potential decrease in popularity as users move to other applications such as snapchat and other mobile apps.
