Kim Kardashian West Says Taking Away Instagram Likes Could Be 'Beneficial' for Mental Health
Kim Kardashian West believes Instagram’s decision to remove likes will improve one’s mental health.
On Wednesday, the KKW Beauty mogul, 39, attended the New York Times‘ DealBook Conference, where she opened up about the new feature Instagram is testing that hides the like and view counts of photos and videos you post from your followers.
Though followers won’t be able to see the like counts during the test, users will still be able to access that information on all of their own posts.
“As far as mental health… I think taking the likes away and taking that aspect away from [Instagram] would be really beneficial for people,” she said at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room at the Time Warner Center in New York City beside her mom Kris Jenner.
“I know the Instagram team has been having a bunch of conversations with people to get everyone’s take on that and they’re taking it really seriously, and that makes me happy,” Kardashian West went on.
RELATED: Instagram Is Testing a New Feature That Hides Your Like Count from Followers
While the mother of four said she doesn’t personally struggle with mental health issues in relation to Instagram likes, she believes that having the feature instilled will help many others who do.
“I find myself to be extremely mentally strong and I have people who are obsessed with the comments, and I find that to be really unhealthy,” she explained. “I struggle with having to step outside of how I feel and thinking about, ‘What if one of my children was like one of my friends who wasn’t as mentally strong and would really be affected by the comments?'”
“That would really affect me,” she admitted.
RELATED: World Health Organization Now Recommends No Screen Time for Children Age 1 and Younger
Kardashian West also discussed her approach to frequently posting on Instagram and how her perspective on that has changed over the last few years, especially after she was robbed at gunpoint in her Paris hotel room in Oct. 2016.
“It is tricky and when I raise my kids, I think about screen time, phone time, what to post, what not to post,” she explained.
“Even posting things in real-time, I learned from a bad experience I had when I was robbed that people knew my every move, what I had, where I was, what I was doing, and that, to me, really changed the things that I post,” she continued.
“I still want people to feel like they’re on that journey with me, but I might video something and then post it when I’ve left the location for privacy,” the star added.
Mental health has become an incredibly important conversation for Kardashian West.
In Aug. 2018, the fashion mogul launched her first Facebook fundraiser on behalf of the Child Mind Institute, a non-profit dedicated to changing the lives of kids with mental health issues or learning difficulties.
“As a mother of three, I think nothing is more important than my children’s health. This includes their physical and mental health,” she wrote at the time. “Over 17 million kids in the US struggle with a mental health or learning disorder like anxiety, ADHD, dyslexia or depression, making it hard for them to learn and succeed. Yet with proper diagnosis and treatment, these children can thrive. As students return to the classroom this fall, I want to do what I can to make sure they have all they need to succeed in school and in life, now and in the future.”
The Keeping Up With the Kardashians star’s husband, Kanye West, also has been open about his “mental condition” diagnosis at 39, which he referred to as “a superpower.”
Kardashian West recently spoke to Vogue about how she and West have reached a “pretty good place” with managing the rapper’s episodes.
“It is an emotional process, for sure,” the reality mogul revealed in the May cover story. “Right now everything is really calm. But we can definitely feel episodes coming, and we know how to handle them.”
“I think some of the hurtful things that I read online: ‘What is she doing? She’s not stopping him…’ Like it’s my fault if he does or says something that they don’t agree with? That’s my husband,” she continued. “I share every opinion that I have and let him know when I think something’s wrong. Or if it comes to him being in the middle of a bipolar episode, I’ll do everything to be supportive and help to calm the situation.”
