SYLVIA MCKEOWN: We like our likes so much, panic greets fake news of their binning
Instagram is testing a feature that would hide like counts from audiences, which experts say would improve the health of children
On April 10 Jessy Taylor took to YouTube in tears. Through the wails she beseeched those who were reporting her Instagram account as spam to “think twice”, as they were ruining her life: “I make all of my money online, all of it, and I don’t want to lose that,” said the 21-year-old Taylor. After the slew of reports by trolls the influencer’s Instagram account had been shut down, cutting off her 113,000 followers and sending her on a now viral crying fit bemoaning the prospect of getting a real job. She even went so far as to say she was “perfectly happy where I’m at. I have no job qualifications, I could never work a normal job. I bring nothing to the table.” Although many of us may not feel too much sympathy, these days Taylor is not the only one who would be wailing, “I am nothing without my following” if it happened to them. An entire economy has been built on influencer culture. The number of likes a post gets translates directly to hard cash in many cases. So what would happen ...
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