Removed

#REMOVED Instagram has removed “likes” on posts and it is impacting teens more than expected.

nstagram is one of the most popular social media platforms among teens today. At Suncoast, students are constantly using their Instagram to connect with their friends and meet new people.

In the past, users have been able to post photos of things ranging from selfies to their favorite memes. In September 2019, however, Instagram made a change to the app that impacted its users in a big way. For the purpose of experimentation, Instagram has removed the ability to view the number of likes that a person has received on a post for a portion of their users. Now, only some profiles can observe likes.

While Instagram has received backlash from some of the more popular users, dubbed “social media influencers,” arguing that it will hurt their platform, this change is much larger than Instagram fame. For teenage girls, social media can have a huge effect on their self esteem during such formative years of their lives. Instagram “models” and celebrities set an example for what young girls think that they should live up to. In a new generation of social media, girls are being taught that their worth is based on a number of likes, which is very unhealthy for an adolescent’s confidence.

“I feel like there has always been girls that only care about how many likes their posts will get,” junior Mallory Reale said, “Some people will even delete posts that don’t get ‘enough’ likes.”

By removing likes, Instagram has unintentionally begun to put a halt to the “like=worth” culture. Young girls who are just starting out on the platform are less worried about how many likes they get in comparison to others, and teenagers who have been on the platform for a while are Diana Devine Social Media Manager and Lifestyle Editor I

Photo by Diana Devine

now learning to let go of the pressure of getting “enough” likes.

“I am pretty new to Instagram and I think that removing likes was really smart. All my friends were always so focused on how many likes they got and it kept me from making an account for a long time,” senior Liel Shamash said, “It makes the app one of my favorite ways to connect with my friends now and we don’t care about likes anymore.”

Because users can only see how many likes their own posts receive, rather than others, it eliminates the act of labelling a person by the number of likes that they receive. It allows girls and boys to have more freedom in what they want to post and releases them from the weight that a like number can have on a teen’s self esteem. Removing likes is a step in the right direction in making social media a less toxic community for young students.

Fight for Your Right to Potty

ith the start of the 2019-20 school year, Suncoast has been subject to a lot of changes. For instance, the locked restrooms, have been an adjustment for the students. In the past, restrooms remained unlocked throughout the entirety of the day. This allowed students to use the restroom closest to their classroom, lessening the amount of time they needed to be out of class.

Senior Marlee Marquez said, “I liked having the ability to go where I want because then I wouldn’t have to walk so far to go to the restroom. I don’t like missing class, especially an important class like history.”

After lunch, many of the restrooms are locked, so students are forced to use the middle restrooms in the hallway. This is of an inconvenience for the students who have classes that are at the end of the halls. The new assistant principal Attallah McLawrence said that it is all about “safety, we need to make sure we have a way to maintain a safe environment.”

The safety of the students has been made a number one priority in recent years due to the increase in school shootings, but the locked restrooms are not always locked. The restrooms are supposed to be locked in time for last period, but there are times when this is not the case.

Sophomore Guilianna Johnston said, “Sometimes, when I go to the restroom I forget that they are supposed to lock the restrooms but then realize that there are times when they don’t.”

If the main reason why the restrooms are locked is for safety, then the restrooms need to be locked everyday. The concern for safety has been put first, but it is hard to have a safe environment with the inconsistent access to some of the restrooms.

The need for safer schools is very high, but locking the restrooms sometimes may not be the best way to achieve this. The freedom to go is determined by the day. Skyler Elkin Staff Writer W