It’s been a while since you were last on Instagram. In the interim, your feed has changed with the introduction of hashtags, the rise of influencers, and an increased focus on likes. What used to be a small space for sharing snapshots with friends and family has morphed into a digital public space that is constantly at play with social identities and status. This sort of culture creates an environment where people feel entitled to certain privileges like having popular posts liked by hordes of strangers. buy instagram views 2023 via Go Read and watch your account grow.
What are the roles of Instagram likes in creating a sense of community on the platform
Likes are valuable currency
Offering likes and shares is a way to make oneself more visible to followers, increase engagement, and drive traffic to blogs or products. More importantly, it’s a way for users to show appreciation for their followers and receive valuable input in return. Since likes are valued currency, it’s not unusual for users to be more willing to take risks with content that has the potential to generate likes. In my experience, this encourages more experimentation with personal style that is often more risky and bold than typical stuff posted by popular accounts.
Immediate feedback drives engagement
There’s a “stickiness” to likes, shares, and comments on Instagram that makes it hard for users to overlook them as a means of measuring their reach. Shout out comments or comments on specific posts are perceived differently than generic fanning or replying (though they’re still appreciated!). Conversely, Instagram doesn’t take into account how many times you’ve liked or commented much less what you’ve said. The mechanism of likes and comments, and the existence of a kind of feedback loop between them, creates a sense of social time travel. It’s very easy to imagine that you can “behold” all the activities you’ve posted in the past, even if those have been erased from your feed.
Likes are impossibly hard to turn off
As mentioned above, Instagram feeds are a reflection of how much influence you have over your audience. The fact that you’re unable to ignore likes is part of what makes Instagram so addictive for many users. This also helps explain why so many users don’t delete their accounts when they stop posting photos (Instagram only allows for 30 days without posting).
Likes are a kind of social currency
In general, likes and comments are a way for users to gauge the level of engagement with their friends and followers. More importantly, likes and comments don’t necessarily have to be replies to friends and family. They’re also a way for users to measure influence amongst strangers in addition to peers. The value of likes comes from the fact that they allow a user to be valued by someone he or she doesn’t know personally. This dynamic is similar in some ways to what happens offline when you receive validation while walking down the street from people you’ve never met in person before. You can understand how much interaction you’re getting without turning around or talking directly with the person who’s engaging with you.
