Instagram Redesign

Nate Reid

The big problem in today’s world everyone is talking about is the addiction to social media and their smartphones.  Where people might be mistaken is that this is only a problem for young kids and teenagers. But it has gotten to a point where people of all ages are being consumed in a world of technology.  Some people are better at controlling themselves than others. But the main problem I am addressing here is the anxiety and depression problems people mostly from the ages 13-22 are experiencing.  All these social media apps (mostly Snapchat, Instagram, little bit of Facebook) are causing people to get these constant needs for attention. This is true for celebrities and professional athletes as well in some ways I will get into later.  But those 3 apps are some of the biggest social media apps available at the moment and people are letting it take over their lives. I believe there is a simple solution. You can’t just take away social media apps, that would cause a lot of people to be upset.  But what you can do in the case of Instagram, which is the main app I am going to be focusing on is taking away the like button. It’s as simple as that. The number of followers would still be visible but no like button. This change would have to be made to instagram itself, not creating a new app that has the same concepts as instagram but without a like button.  People are so hooked on instagram it would be impossible to get them off. Some people however are trying to better themselves by deleting instagram as a whole and staying off social media. But the people that usually have to do that end up feeling the need to install it again and get right back into what they were already in. I’ve seen it first hand. I’ve seen these mentally unstable people go through withdrawals and force themselves to delete the app.  But that only makes things worse because they feel even more left out. But if instagram was changed to where it was a platform to share pictures with friends and family and fans even, without the like button a lot of problems would be solved. 

Everything on social media now is competition.  For absolutely no reason. It’s a competition to see who can get the most likes or who can get the most followers.  But in the long run, who really cares? People feel the need to constantly please other random people. Which is different for celebrities but that’s where the problem lies.  Too many people are trying to become “Instagram Famous”. But why? I don’t really know. For me personally, when I am scrolling through these social media apps I could care less about what these people are saying.  For the most part they are trying to seem cool or they are just complaining about something. With this change I would be making to Instagram by removing the like button I would still remove the ability to comment on posts as well.  If the comments were kept in but the like button was not it would turn into its own whole situation again. If so and so didn’t get this many comments on their post they will feel left out. Which defeats the whole purpose of redesigning the app.  You would still be able to share posts and put them on your profile. I am basically redesigning the app so that it is used the way it’s supposed to be used. The whole purpose of Instagram is to share pictures with those who care about you and in a sense it can be used to identify a person.  Which is another reason why the like button is a problem. People are too afraid that they will be identified as someone who isn’t cool or popular if their pictures don’t get a certain amount of likes or comments. These people with these problems have to realize that at the end of the day, no one really cares.  It’s all in their head, all because of a like button. If people really wanted to congratulate you or say something to you about your Instagram post if there wasn’t a like button or comment section they would personally message you or say it to you in person. So in a sense this is also promoting face to face interaction which is slowly deteriorating due to this social media addiction.  

Humans interacting with one another in person is crucial for a person’s mental health.  If they are constantly just sitting in their room being unproductive and surfing the internet trying to make a name for themselves by posting and commenting on things they will quickly lose sight of what’s important and become depressed because they feel like they have no friends.  It’s as simple as going out to breakfast or going hiking with a group of friends or a girlfriend/boyfriend to get away from all these social media habits and to just be able to enjoy life for what it is, not what you want it to be. Getting rid of the like button on Instagram would do more good for people than one may initially think.  This isn’t true for as many people but if Instagram were to lose its like button, users of the app might start to lose interest in the app altogether. Now this could go one of two ways. They get bored of the app and start to realize that they need to find something productive to do in their life. Or they find a new app and are quickly consumed by that.  Which is why I believe all these social media apps should make an attempt by making small changes one by one to help the mental health of the consumers. At this point it’s all about the business. These apps would not make nearly as much money if they were to make these changes. But at some point, it will be necessary to look at the happiness of the human population rather than looking at the business part of it.  The younger generation of people is already screwed. They have been led into this social media era since birth it has literally become a part of their life. And with all the nonsense that’s on Instagram and social media these kids are not seeing what life is all about anymore. It may even get to a point where social media needs to be erased forever so people actually make an effort to do something. Rather than just watching and fantasizing their life over the internet.  

When it comes to celebrities and professional athletes, I think the same precautions need to be taken.  I am seeing these D1 athletes and professional athletes focusing more on their social media following than their actual physical talent.  And it is severely hurting them in the long run. Sure a lot of people might think you’re cool for making a cool catch in practice and dancing afterwards.  But it would be even more cool if you did that in a game and were humble about it until you have actually earned the opportunity to celebrate and show people how successful you  are. And if the like button was removed, you could possibly see these athletes change how they practice and set their priorities now that they don’t have to focus on how popular they are on Instagram.

Removing the like button and comment section on Instagram would sadly make life better for so many people.  It’s things like this that have to be done since people are so invested in these social media apps we slowly have to dig them out back into reality.  You would see a change in priorities, more face to face interactions, and more reasons to be productive. If everyone in this world is productive in one way, whether it’s productive for themselves or productive for other people our world will be in good shape.

This Video is a prime example of the issue at hand: