No Reciprocity in "Liking" Photos

Abstract

In social media, people often press a "Like" button to indicate their shared interest in a particular content or to acknowledge the user who posted the content. Such activities form relationships and networks among people, raising interesting questions about their unique characteristics and implications. However, little research has investigated such Likes as a main study focus. To address this lack of understanding, based on a theoretical framework, we present an analysis of the structural, influential, and contextual aspects of Like activities from the test datasets of 20 million users and their 2 billion Like activities in Instagram.Our study results first highlight that Like activities and networks increase exponentially, and are formed and developed by one's friends and many random users. Second, we observe that five other essential Instagram elements influence the number of Likes to different extents, but following others will not necessarily increase the number of Likes that one receives. Third, we explore the relationship between LDA-based topics and Likes, characterize two user groups-specialists and generalists-and show that specialists tend to receive more Likes and promote themselves more than generalists. We finally discuss theoretical and practical implications and future research directions.

Ethical User Interfaces: Exploring the Effects of Dark Patterns on Facebook

“…Recent research in HCI has already shown some interest in social media and their features. The 'liking' behaviour of people on SNS, for example, has been investigated, noticing specific elements that influence the count of likes received [16]. With a focus on the social network Facebook, Wang et al found that people often feel regret about certain content that they have shared which ultimately caused them disadvantages in social and professional areas [35].…”

The Positive Effect of Not Following Others on Social Media

“… 10 The average number of Instagram posts in a sample of 20 million Instagram users (see Jang, Han, and Lee 2015). …”

Why people press “like”: A new measure for aesthetic appeal derived from Instagram data.

“…Consistent content is considered a basic rule for managing a successful Instagram account (Carroll, 2017). Jang et al (2015) also found empirical evidence that specialists on Instagram receive five times more Likes from the community than generalists who post a mix of content. And third, we included accounts with at least 15,000 followers, as a large number of followers guarantees that a wide range of users sees and potentially likes the images.…”

“…They can switch to the Instagram Explore section, where Instagram suggests content based on previous interactions, and where content can be searched based on keywords (i.e., hashtags). For a study of networks formed by follow and like activity on Instagram see also Jang, Han, and Lee (2015). Figure 1 shows what an Instagram post looks like.…”