Will X’s Move to Hide Likes Improve Mental Health?
By Movieguide® Contributor
X (previously known as Twitter) is doing away with like and comment counts.
On Tuesday, Elon Musk confirmed the change, stating in a post, “Important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so!”
Important to allow people to like posts without getting attacked for doing so! https://t.co/3O1bG7wIGe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 11, 2024
Following that, users received a pop-up that read, “We are making Likes private for everyone to better protect your privacy.”
Feelings about the big changes are mixed, and the comment section of Musk’s announcement was full of criticism regarding the change.
Relevant Magazine said, “Some X users are concerned about how this will change interactions on the app. For one, it might mean the end of the much-loved (or much-hated, depending on who you ask) ‘ratio’ phenomenon. Others are concerned that it might make it harder to spot misinformation or controversial content quickly.”
However, some see the positive benefit of this change. Mental health struggles arise from social media use, and doing away with likes on X gives people one less metric to compare themselves by.
Movieguide® previously reported on how social media affects mental health:
Dr. Logan Winkelman, a counselor at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, said that even though mindless social media scrolling might seem harmless, it actually produces negative effects on mental health.
“We may not be engaging in other activities, or it [screen time] could be a coping mechanism, and that could lead to other things like anxiety and depression,” Dr. Winkelman said.
This, along with the fact that teens, on average, spend nearly eight hours on screens every day, explains the skyrocketing rates of mental health issues among young people.
A study by The Yale School of Medicine “found that youth who spent the most time on their digital technology were statistically more likely to exhibit higher internalizing problems two years later. Internalizing problems include depression, anxiety, social anxiety, somatic complaints, and other concerns. This association between frequent screen time and mental health problems was mediated by specific changes in brain development.”
“The number of likes and comments can significantly impact a user’s self-esteem,” Rock and Art added. “When posts do not receive the expected level of engagement, it can lead to feelings of rejection and self-doubt. Comparing one’s life to others’ curated and often unrealistic portrayals can further diminish self-esteem.”
In a world full of negative voices, a feature to drown them out can certainly help, or if anything else, draw our attention to more positive and important things besides how many people liked a post.
