The Value of Likes

1-3 min read

“Hey guys, make sure to like and subscribe! Smash that like button! Don’t forget to hit that bell to get notified when I post new videos!”

It seems as though we can’t watch any video or look at any post without being told to like, share, subscribe, follow, donate, or any other form of internet solicitation. It can get tiring, but it clearly works; otherwise it wouldn’t be happening as much as it does. 

But what is the value of a like? And why do I sometimes feel like people don’t deserve or haven’t earned my like? I don’t know about you, whoever you are reading this, but there have been times where I felt like I didn’t like something out of jealousy, resentment, laziness, or for whatever other reason. It doesn’t cost me anything. It takes half of one second, and I’m scrolling my feed anyway. Why not? 

I browse Reddit almost every day, and yet I only upvote if I want to save something in my history. If it wasn’t for likes, however, people probably wouldn’t be creating content, YouTube wouldn’t be a valid career, and we would not have literal endless amounts of content to consume. 

To give you some context, I recently started posting these stories along with portraits of people that I’ve met while traveling. The amount of feedback I’ve gotten has been nothing short of amazing, it’s been so inspiring that it’s pushing me to create more and better content. It made me start to think about the effect of this feedback has on me. Whether it’s a canned reaction, a personalized message, or a simple like, it definitely tells me that what I’m doing is speaking to people. 

Some people seem to base their entire merit on the number of likes, feeling good if their post does well, and bad if it doesn’t. They correlate their success, popularity and entire worth based on a fictitious, virtual, number. In some cases, it directly correlates to your earnings; and in that regard, I see the importance and can agree that it’s necessary. For others, it can be a little traumatizing to obsess over follower count, post engagement, and all of the other analytical intricacies. And then there’s Instagram removing the amount of likes that can be seen publicly. A move that I personally agree with that ties directly into this idea.

So what is the value of a like, then? Is it purely validation? Does a like need to be earned? I ask these questions not because I have the answer, but because I truly do not know. What I do know, however, is that I want to be less stingy with my likes. If I like something, even remotely, I want to pass that along. I have unlimited likes, and it takes no more effort to like something than not. I’d like to pass the message on to you, the reader, as well. If you’ve ever felt like someone doesn’t deserve the amount of e-fame they’ve gotten, that you find that you produce better content and yet don’t get the same response, or any other feelings towards likes; please take a moment and ask yourself: 

What’s the value of a like to you? 

Feel free to let me know, I’d love to have a discussion!