Facebook is considering removing Like counts from your thirsty FB posts

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

In Facebook’s latest round of “we’re trying to avoid the problems by doing something else instead,” the company is trialing hiding the all-important Like counter on News Feed posts. Instead, it will just have the “X and others” tag to show that some people interacted, just with the number of Likes hidden.

Maybe this will stop internet points on Facebook from devolving into pissing matches, but I doubt it. The only thing it might do is hide the decline in active Facebook users, as users switch to other ways of staying connected.

Facebook is trialing the removal of post Like counts

Image: Jane Manchun Wong

Ever looked at a viral post with its thousands of Likes and think “wow, my life is shittier than that person’s”? No? You might be in the minority, as the large Like count can make users feel self-conscious of their own lives and what they choose to post. That’s a problem for Facebook, who need users online to view the advertising space they sell to companies.

• Facebook has slowly turned into an online scrapbook, with only momentous life events like weddings, births, and graduations shared
• Other social media sites like Snapchat have taken over as the day-to-day sharing apps
• Instagram has been testing hidden Like counts for a while now

I’m not so sure that simply hiding the Like counter for posts will turn Facebook into the egalitarian utopia that the company thinks it will. Sure, it removes one point of comparison, but it doesn’t address bots, click-for-hire farms, or the fact that everyone’s lives are different. Learn to love the one you have, not the single images of others.

What do you think? Glad to see Facebook looking into removing Like counts? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Zao is a Chinese deepfake app that puts your face into famous movies and it’s blowing up like crazy
• Sleep tracking features are reportedly coming to the Apple Watch soon
• Oh great, Samsung is launching a thinner, square folding phone next year
• This 17-year-old iOS developer is inspiring fellow students with a GPA tracking app

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.