Loved this post; I’ve been watching people in professional networking groups freak out about this roll out lately and it’s great to get a deep dive on it.

I would have to agree with Grosser and say this is my biggest hangup in the movement. It reminds me of an article I read on Medium some time ago that pointed out platforms like Facebook and Instagram are not installing “screen time management” features because they care about your screen time, they’re doing it because you spending less time on the app is better than you abandoning it altogether (as I have done).

I think what concerns people about the shift to hidden like and follower counts the most is the same thing that has Silicon Valley dragging its feet in making the change: we might all have to face the ugly truth that 95% of people are posting in self-interest and really don’t give a damn about who they follow. Since beginning my 3-month Twitter and Instagram hiatus, through conversations with friends I’ve noticed that *no one has noticed that I’m gone.*

Once I got over the sting to my ego, I was forced to ask myself, what’s the point of posting if people don’t find enough value in my snarky tirade of thoughts and glamorous adventure pics to miss them when they disappear? Am I thinking these 280 character thoughts and doing these cool hikes and camping trips for me or for clout?

All of this is a long-winded way to say that my cynical bet on the experiment is this: user engagement will drop, people will look to new sources of vanity, and then the social media tycoons will pick it back up again. The only people who care about the quality of the content they are consuming from other people, in my opinion, are on Medium ;).