Last week, I received a notification from Instagram to choose to hide the Like count on my posts for my 12K followers, and decide if I wished to see the number of likes on any other user’s profile. I chose to take the option. It meant I had lesser opportunity to compare myself to other creators, basis Likes. It also meant that people visiting my profile would hopefully judge me on content and opinion alone. For a platform that works on the validation it provides users via Likes, Comments, Shares, Saves and the blue tick, a move such as this could mean drastic transformation. 

In an article published last year,  journalist Nic White said that he thought “hiding likes will shift power away from influencers and steer brands back towards paid adverts”.