Dangers of liking something too much • Download This Show
4 June 2021 12:10 pm
It’s been another huge week in social media, with doing a backflip, Facebook actually doing something good, and NFTs continuing to go crazy.
Once again, I was fortunate enough to join Marc Fennell on Download This Show, to chat about everything happening in the world of social media and tech.
Instagram has made a relatively extreme move, backflipping on its decision to hide the number of likes on users’ posts. The move was made in an effort to look after the mental health of its users.
While you could always see how many people have liked your posts, the number was hidden for your followers and other people scrolling through Instagram. Will the decision to add this feature back in have a negative impact for the platform and Instagram users? We’ll have to wait and see, but I certainly find it unnerving.
As a silver lining, the ability to show users your like count is up to you. However, this decision is able to be made on a post-to-post basis. It’s certainly an interesting idea, but it definitely opens the door for some serious downsides.
In more-surprising news, Facebook actually did a good thing this week. I know, right? After the Indian Government proposed new laws that would make people’s messages “traceable” to outside parties for the first time, WhatsApp (which is owned by Facebook) sued the Indian Government. What a crazy time to be alive. Making messages traceable kind of defeats the whole purpose of WhatsApp, so the move makes total sense from Facebook’s end.
What are NFTs, and is it all one big scam? Unless you have been living under a digital rock, you have probably heard about NFTs. A non-fungible token (or NFT) is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. Confused? Everyone is. Essentially, an NFT gives you ownership over a digital asset.
However, as is the case with most new internet crazes, there’s plenty of opportunity for people to be scammed. If you’re interested in the world of NFTs, make sure you navigate it with some caution, do your research, and check the legitimacy of the platforms you’re using.
Missed me on Marc Fennell’s Download This Show? Check out a quick clip below, listen to the full episode here.
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