[Techonomicon]

I posted somewhere else on this thread, but putting a main one as well.

What gets lost in the whole "get rid of like counts" argument is that doing so generally speaking just helps those who are well-known and really makes it more tough for others to get there.

Many individual creators rely on likes, shares, reposts, w/e to drive their reach. Without a replacement that provides the same ability for the individual to gain that same reach this sort of change just hurts them.

Sadly, people do care about how many others found something interesting as a reason for whether they should pay attention to it or not, so something like this can literally take money out of people's hands that make pretty honest livings at what they do (such as webcomic artists) and makes it even more tough for them to just get while working for themselves.

[WA]

Assuming that everybody uses Instagram to gain more followers, likes, exposure.

If you merely use it privately with your friends, not showing likes takes pressure and awkwardness out of it imho.

[rohan1024]

This is what is happening. Most people are running after likes and followers. Everyone wants everyone else to like their stuff and follow them. Of course this does not happen every time. To certain extent it breeds resentment and jealousy. People not validating their acquaintances might seem like a small issue on social network but it has real impact on relationships in real life.

[rohan1024]

I agree with you. But content creator need to realize that if they are fully dependent on another entity for source of their income (which they don't even have business agreement with) they are setting themselves up for disaster. The entity can make changes to platform and it does not owe anything to content creators.

You need to provide content through something that you own yourself. Instagram and other social platforms can help you promote your business but making these platform as source of living is shooting yourself in the foot.

[Techonomicon]

Plenty of people, and I mean plenty, like many (I can back up with citations if that is really helpful)

a) own their content 100% that they make on their own sites b) definitely rely on social networking / media applications for driving a fanbase.