Weekly Brief: Facebook, don’t you know we’re detoxing?

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Facebook’s F8 developers’ conference has reignited the discussion about online welfare and wellness in the age of social media (we’re as shocked as you are!)

The debate’s kick-off point was Instagram announcing details of their experiment into ‘Like-hiding’ in the Canadian market. The modified functionality allows users to still view “Likes” if they choose to, but it reduces the prominence of such “validatory” features, (hopefully) keeping eyes on the content itself and boosting user wellness. So you can like that picture of a cat without giving a stuff who else has, or post your own cat and not be reminded that the neighbour’s cat is supposedly three-times more popular! Don’t worry though, your cat’s great…

This move to protect against “toxic envy” was somewhat undermined by Facebook revealing features that could induce “toxic lust.” Of course we’re referring to the new ‘Secret Crushes’ feature added to Facebook Dating, which allows one to covertly mark which of your facebook friends the user would like to… get to know better. Without delving into the value of dating one’s friends, we wonder whether a feature designed to mark physical attractiveness in members of your social network does a great deal to circumvent envy online. Others meanwhile have questioned whether we should even be concerned with toxicity online, and instead just crack on and develop better tools to enjoy it. We’re not overly worried about “Likes” at Work in Startups, being far more concerned with getting the best talent into UK startups… but of course we won’t say no if you follow us on facebook and twitter!

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Instagram officially tests hiding Like counts

Instagram has been conducting an experiment in Canada to hide likes in order to boost wellness in users.

Facebook adds ‘secret crushes’ so you can see which friends are thirsting after you

Facebook Dating have announced new functionality to mark which of your friends you find attractive.

Why it’s high time you ditched that digital detox nonsense

Some say we should develop new ways to enjoy technology without being overwhelmed by it instead.

 These are the startup jobs we ‘like-like’ this week:

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Happy Hunting! Happy Hiring!

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