FEATURE4 March 2020

As you like it

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Asia Pacific Europe Features Impact North America

Responses to a social media experiment have highlighted differing attitudes to validation in several countries, analysis from Join the Dots / InSites Consulting has found

As-you-like-it

In July 2019, Instagram hid ‘likes’ on posts across seven countries, saying it wanted to “remove pressure” on users caused by the metric. It announced a wider rollout of the trial towards the end of the year.

Analysis of consumer conversations in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland revealed more than just attitudes to this experiment, and which consumers were for or against the change. What became apparent were the deep-rooted cultural differences affecting body image and mental health in these countries.

New Zealand

Recent reports show that New Zealand’s mental health services are struggling to meet the rising demands of ‘the missing middle’ – those suffering with anxiety, depression and social isolation. The country has one of the highest rates of suicide in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), especially among young people. There is a widespread feeling that more needs to be done to tackle the issue of social media amplifying anxieties.

It’s unsurprising, then, that the ...