I recently came across this article and it got me thinking...in the age of social media, it seems like everyone lives for "follows," "likes," and any other form of interaction from others on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. But why do we care what other people post on social media? Why do some people "like" random photos of their friends and family or even more perplexing, liking photos of celebrities? It's pretty safe to say that we will never meet these celebrities we follow on social media. They don't know we exist and our "likes" on their posts only get lost in a sea of thousands of other people's "likes." So why bother doing it?
My boyfriend likes a lot of girls selfies on Instagram and Facebook, should I be concerned?
My LDR boyfriend has random girls on Instagram and always likes their pics?
Do you care when your boyfriend likes other girl's pictures? Guys.. what does this mean?
It's clear that many people want to know, what do you get out of liking a celebrity or other random person's photo on social media? I feel that there is a huge difference in the way men and women use social media so it could potentially be just another misunderstanding between the genders.
In the first article linked above, one woman wanted to find out more and get to the bottom (haha pun intended) of why her boyfriend just HAD to "like" a photo of Emily Ratajkowski's butt. So she asked some of her friends, both men and women, why they like celebrity posts on social media. Here are some of the answers, specified with (M) and (F) to represent gender of the answerer.
(F): I like celebrity Instagram posts all the time...
No offense but I don’t feel like I should have to explain my reasoning, as there really isn’t any and I’m not hurting anyone. Relax!
That said, your boyfriend liking this pic is a little weird, but mostly because he’s a boy. I don’t feel it’s too controversial for me to say that the rules of “Instagram creeping” are slightly different for me, a girl.
(F): I follow two New York-based models on Instagram, mostly because I like to imagine what my life would be like if I had money. Also, they post pictures of really good outfits...
But, to paraphrase the 1997 classic film Titanic, a woman’s social habits are a deep ocean of secrets. These little creeps are just for me.
Your boyfriend, I’m afraid, does not appear to be an ocean. I would dub him lake / 10, a scoring system that equates to, “well, that is a nice butt pic.”
(M): I don’t follow many celebrities — Drake, Rihanna, and that’s about it. I don’t think I’ve ever liked any of their posts. I guess in my head, a like is a discrete message from the viewer to the poster that says, “I like what you did here,” or “Damn, WTF is that?” or “This is chill,” or “Wish I was there,” or “Yes, your dog is cute” — whatever it is.
(M):
Most of my likes have gone to family, a few to close friends, and zero to celebrities. My likes are typically a "More of this, please!" sort of statement, which I would like to be heard.
Maybe likes on a celebrity photo could be seen as a sort of vote. Maybe in aggregate, your boyfriend's encouragement of @emrata will lead her to produce more similar Instagram content in the future? If that's the case, while his contribution was small, he's doing his part.
(M): Usually if I’m scrolling through my feed, liking a bunch of photos from friends, and I see something interesting from one of them [a celebrity], I’ll give it a double tap. But this happens far less often than I like my actual friends’ photos. There’s not much thought that goes into not liking celebrity photos besides “they won’t see it, so why bother,” but then again I’m (relatively) old, and Instagram likes hold no social value for me.
And so the writer goes on to say, "There seems to be a bit of a double standard when it comes to a woman double tapping a butt on Instagram...I find it so Neanderthal-esque that men can’t help but have their fingers slip and double tap a big, almost naked butt. The entire concept of my boyfriend, or boyfriends in general, following random “fitness” girls and models they'll never meet irks me. When they throw them a like is when it reaches another level of dumb for me. Not because I feel threatened, but because it’s such a simple thing to not do when you have a beautiful girl right in front of you!" Ultimately when it came down to it though, her boyfriend's response to "Why did you like her butt picture?" was:
“I didn’t really think about it; I just liked it.”
Most Helpful Opinions