How does one judge the success of a holiday in the modern world? The variety of new experiences undertaken? The amount of quality time spent with loved ones? Perhaps the frequency of life-changing moments?
No, of course, it is by the number of likes garnered by your holiday Instagram posts. But soon we may all have to find another way to quantify the worth of our travel memories (and, indeed, ourselves), as the company has rolled out an update to the app that will hide the total number of likes posts on the platform receive.
The photo-sharing app began the trial, which will hide the total number of ‘likes’ a user’s photo has amassed to everyone but them, to test groups in Canada in May, and has now expanded the update to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Ireland, Italy and Brazil. The move is an attempt to stop users seeing the platform as something of a popularity competition, with Mia Garlick, Facebook Australia and New Zealand director of policy saying in a statement, “We hope this test will remove the pressure of how many likes a post will receive, so you can focus on sharing the things you love.”
It’s no secret that the photo-sharing app has had an enormous impact on the world of travel, with one survey finding that over 40% of travellers polled between the ages of 18 and 33 choose holiday destinations based on how ‘Instagrammable’ they are.
This desire to upload interesting, and therefore ‘likeable,’ pics, has sent travellers venturing to remote Australian boat houses, temples in Bali and even waste dumps in Siberia – sometimes putting themselves at risk in the process. The phenomenon has also spurred a number of Insta-focused industries, with tour operators providing professional photographers to snap pics of travellers on city breaks and one hotel in Zürich providing an ‘Instagram sitter service’ where a member of staff mans guest’s accounts during their stay.
But without the instant gratification of knowing the number of ‘likes’ images have received on the platform, it is possible the scope for such activities may diminish. There is no information about how long the trial period is set to last and whether these changes will take effect permanently. In the meantime, if you’re travelling to one of the countries trialling the new format, you’ll have to make up your own mind on how beautiful that sunset looks, rather than leaving it to your followers to decide.
