A New Era of Social Media: Will Instagram Likes Still Be a Goal Our Kids Will Want to Achieve?

13th November 2022

The Instagram platform continues to be relevant, even at a time when there are many competitors for it. Many other lesser-known apps constantly battle for supremacy and relevance in the background.

There are political ones like Truth Social or Parlor, work-related ones like LinkedIn, and dozens more trying to break into the mainstream. Their goal isn’t just to connect people. It’s to generate revenue for their creators and platform users alike.

Like many other applications, Insta remains somewhat of a popularity contest. That makes sense because many individuals and companies attempt to monetize it by gaining many IG likes. Their best way to do that is to boost their metrics as high as possible.

Among numerous services, espresso.digital is one entity where you can buy gradual Instagram likes if you’re interested in propping up your numbers. You might do that:

  • If you’re new to the platform and feel like you need an immediate boost to achieve relevancy;
  • If your IG account represents your company, and you’re about to come out with a new service or product;
  • If you’re trying to monetize by partnering with another company or influencer, and you know more likes on Instagram will attract their attention.

Hearts on IG are among the most necessary metrics for anyone wanting to maintain a popular channel. Will future generations care as much about them, though? We’ll examine that question in the following article.

The Battle for Likes

The average user who wants to monetize has proven ways of doing that, which have emerged over the years since the app first appeared. For instance, there is the ever-popular buying of likes for Instagram from companies that sell them.

Even if you elect not to purchase IG hearts this way, you must beware of any practices that can cost you likes. They’re one of the most crucial ways to retain the appearance of popularity, so staying on the Instagram algorithm’s good side should be foremost in your mind as you produce and post new content.

The point is that if you understand how the algorithm works, you’ll know that keeping your number of IG likes high is the optimal way to achieve your goals. Is it always going to be that way, though? Or will future generations not care so much about this metric?

Will Likes Mean as Much as Time Passes?

When trying to determine whether future generations will put as much emphasis on likes on Instagram as current users put on this metric, there are two ways of looking at it. The first is whether hearts for IG will mean as much as time passes, and the second is whether the app will still be around at all.

Let’s look at the first factor, whether Insta likes will mean as much to our kids. The prevailing theory among those in the tech industry is that they will.

Their reasoning is simple enough. Likes on IG in the future will probably be a similar point of emphasis because:

  • Instagram hearts are a strong indicator of a channel’s popularity.
  • Popularity is one of the main driving features behind the whole concept of SMM.
  • Even if you’re not utilizing social media to boost your popularity, you’re still using it for monetization.

If we’re operating under the assumption that none of this will change, then it makes sense that likes on IG will continue to matter, and that future generations will care about them. You can use different strategies to try and promote yourself or your company with Instagram.

Whether the younger generations that are coming up at the moment want to use digital media to boost their notoriety or make money, it should remain the same popularity contest it is today.

The Popularity of Some Platforms Wanes

Now, let’s look at the second premise. This one states that Instagram likes may not matter as much because the platform might not be around in the future at all. Nowadays, IG competes with the following apps:

  • TikTok
  • Meta
  • Twitter
  • Snapchat
  • Pinterest

Like music, clothing fashions, hairstyles, or any other business, networking platforms go out of style. You might notice, though, that when a particular app goes out of style, it generally becomes completely defunct. Something like a clothing style might enjoy another surge of popularity because of the nostalgia factor, but you likely won’t notice the same phenomenon with networking apps.

MySpace is a prime example of that. It was popular for a certain length of time, and then it vanished from sight, presumably never to be seen again.

Eventually, expecting the same thing from Instagram makes sense. It will become obsolete, making it unlikely our kids will want to use it at all, much less care about likes for IG or other metrics that matter to current users.

Other Social Media Platforms Will Rise

Social media does not seem to be a phenomenon that’s going away anytime soon; it has become too mainstream and has too many potential uses. It’s a way that a person or brand can rise to superstardom in a relatively short amount of time.

Instagram already has a limited number of people and companies that use it, and one of the limitations is age-related. Gen Z is much less likely to use it than Millennials, just as Gen Z isn’t likely to use Meta, formerly known as Facebook.

Much like hairstyles and kinds of music, the most likely outcome with Instagram and the IG likes is that they will have their day, and then something else will come along to replace them. You could argue that this is already happening with TikTok preferred by younger people.

 

Is Instagram fading out?

This is not to say that Insta is defunct right now, and it’s not, provided you accept its place in society and its limitations. If you’re trying to reach a certain demographic, you can use it and still care about how many likes for IG you accrue. If you’re targeting the younger generations, you have to look elsewhere.

It’s probably unrealistic for Millennials who are raising children right now to think that those children will grow up caring about Instagram and how many likes for IG they can get. Instead, by the time they reach adolescence and beyond, there will likely be another format app that has taken its place.

Maybe that application has already been invented, or will make its first appearance soon. Either way, when our kids get to be the age we are now, they will probably strive for likes or whatever other metric matters on their preferred digital space, just like we’re currently doing on Instagram.