PHOTOS: BACKGRID, GETTY, INSTAGRAM/TRACIEGILESPERMANENTMAKEUP LAST WEEK, INSTAGRAM announced it was trialling the removal of visible ‘likes’ from the accounts of randomly selected users in the US and the UK. ‘If you’re in the test, you’ll no longer see the total number of likes on photos and videos posted to Feed unless they’re your own,’ Instagram explained, adding that feedback on a like-free experience – as trialled in Ireland, Australia and Japan – had been ‘positive’.
It’s a mental health initiative. Turns out, us dedicating all our time to the creation and publication of audaciously doctored online images of the perfect (pretty, skinny, ‘authentic’) lives absolutely none of us are leading, in the hope we’ll generate empty, heart-shaped symbols of approval, the accumulation of which will serve as defining testament to…
