BENGALURU: Facebook's trial program of hiding "likes" may seem like a small change but mental health experts in National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) say the outcome of this can be a huge potential for research and also affect many lives.
"The metrics like shares, follower counts and likes affect users' mental health and we have seen cases where there is an increase in feelings of anxiety, depression, and loneliness due to this. Such a program can definitely boost users wellbeing," said Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, Professor of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS who works exclusively with technology addict clients at the institute's SHUT (Service for Healthy use of Technology) Clinic.
According to him likes and followers definitely impact the well being of social media users and if social media giants like Instagram and Facebook is acknowledging it that means there has been enough thought and evidence gone behind experimenting such an idea. He said, NIMHANS sees many patients who have a disconnect from the "real world" and believe that getting acknowledged on social media is the only way to connect to the real world.
Recounting a case, Dr Mahesh R Gowda of Spandana Hospital said, "there was this client who always validated herself and her achievements depending on the number of likes she has got vs how many likes her friend has got. It became so obsessive that it killed her self esteem terribly and she went into severe depression.
"To prevent her from this the client's family to help her took away her mobile phone and this was shattering to the client. She sought validation from online media but then what has to be realised is to also provide an alternative to that validation which she was seeking or else everything will fall flat and could be even more dangerous," he explained.
Mental health experts say that this move of Facebook is definitely going to be a good effort and help people but then one has to also look at the possible repercussions from this. For instance, Dr Manoj explained that "this could also mean that the social media user could resort to alternatives like Tik Tok, Snapchat, Twitter etc. The purpose of the experiment could fail then to some extent."
Dr Ashwini A, counsellor at a private hospital who has dealt with teenagers who come with issues related to low self-esteem and disconnected from their peers due to validating themselves on social media, said, the companies should remember that the design of social media promotes social comparison.
"It just takes few minutes on these platforms to find a plethora of people who are evidently better looking or successful than you leaving people inadequate and unworthy. So there are all chances then that comments can become the new likes," Dr Ashwini says.
She says that this kind of move could even bring in a new problem with the comments becoming new likes. While it was easier to like or leave without liking now there might be a possibility that comments will become a stronger indication of how people are interacting. "This could be even dangerous as a comment can be only an emoji or a lengthy answer which can have both negative and positive, hence it can be more adaptable or disgusting than just the likes." she explained.
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