Demetricators in The Telegraph (UK)

The Telegraph (UK), in an article titled The quest to create a world without likes, retweets and follower counts, wrote about how Twitter, Instagram, and others are now experimenting with hiding metrics. Here’s an excerpt, from journalist Laurence Dodds:

“When we see a number that reflects our social interactions, it’s very hard for us not to want that number to be larger,” says Ben Grosser, an artist and professor at the University of Illinois whose work focuses on the cultural effects of software.

“Ten likes is good, but I’d really prefer 11; 100 followers is great, but 200 would be better. It relates to self-esteem, to how we evolved with the need to feel value about ourselves and others, but now value is quantifiable. So we are compelled by the presence of the numbers to want them to be bigger.”

It was this “desire for more” that persuaded Grosser to build the work he is probably most famous for: a series of custom computer programs called “demetricators” which plug into Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and render all numbers invisible.

Read the whole piece at The Telegraph (free registration required).