Pause Polling whilse element is not visible?

What seems to be the problem:
I’d like to pause polling whilst the element is hidden.
I am polling “likes” every 10s on a page with upto 100 posts. my “like” stats is only visible on hover
This is slowing my app down hugely and (although I’m open to any idea on optimisation), I’m looking to pause polling whilst the like button is hidden. i.e. only poll whilst the stats element is being hovered thus show.

is this currently possible, planned or is there a better way?