The Tyranny of Likes

Imagine for a minute, an internet without Likes. No, not meaning that people wouldn’t like things online, or that people wouldn’t be made sad or happy or angry by things online – but an internet without a Like button (or reactive emotions like Facebook).

What would that do to how we interact with online content? How many of us spends hours a day, scrolling through our feeds and scanning for an attractive picture or a witty saying or a hilarious meme, and then Liking it. I know I do it – scroll, scroll, Like, scroll, Like, scroll, scroll, scroll.

The telling thing is that the content we Like are all things that can be consumed quickly (see above, re: pictures, sayings, and memes) so the entire interaction with the content is congealed to a few seconds – scan the thing, react to the thing, Like the thing.

So what do Likes encourage? They encourage us to consume content quickly, and to react quickly, like taking a shallow paddle in a flat pool where we never touch the bottom. As a reader or consumer of content, a Like makes it too easy to say something basic about that content, without really saying anything.

As a writer or content creator, the tyranny of Likes makes me a slave to that process. Because I want more Likes, I think about how to create content that will get more Likes. For whatever reason – feeling good about what I create, looking good to my friends, boosting my ego – the influence of Likes makes me want to produce content that gets more of them.

This may lead me to change my voice, or write about something that is not true to myself, simply so I can attract more Likes. It might make me edit a picture, or write something inflammatory, or post a fake news item, just because I know my friends will react to it.

Writing for Likes leads us to not write as ourselves. Open Diary is all about telling your true and honest story – what you are feeling, what you are thinking, how you are dealing – without coloring that story to appeal to your friends. If you remove the Like, you remove the temptation to write for the Like.

As a reader, if you can’t react with a Like in a split-second, you may have to think about how you react. If what you have read or seen really makes an impact on you, then tell that person in a Note – words can express your feelings in a much more layered fashion than simply clicking a button. That Note may create a real connection between you and the person who wrote that entry. At the least, it will actually explain what your feelings were when you read it, instead of giving you a totem for an easy reaction.

Likes need to be de-prioritized online, for the sake of everybody.