Zuckerberg has heard your pleas for a Facebook ‘dislike’ button and has sort of delivered, with Facebook ‘Reactions’ offering a some way to register our social media feels beyond merely clicking “like”.
First flagged in September last year, the future is now here with the new feature rolled out around the world. Now users no longer have to merely voice their tacit approval of a post in their newsfeed. Now they can ‘love’, ‘wow’, ‘sad’, ‘angry’ or ‘haha’.
But after countless Newsfeed changes and new features, will this be the one tweak to Facebook’s formula that pushes users too far? Initially Facebook prided itself on simplicity and unflinching set parameters, especially compared to the free-for-all of teenage expression found on Myspace. But since then we’ve got moving profile pictures, cover photos and the ability to post annoying videos that play automatically.
Of course it wasn’t always this way. As Facebook’s other recent innovation ‘On This Day’ has probably reminded you, the very concept of ‘liking’ a post wasn’t always a given prior to 2009. Don’t worry, that’s probably the reason no one liked your status about Kings of Leon‘s new single Sex On Fire in 2008. So perhaps in no time we’ll be Haha-ing and Angry-ing friends’ statuses like pros.
At any rate, no amount of emojis could practically convey the full gamut of emotions one feels when browsing the newsfeed. We’d need ‘righteously indignant’, ‘this recipe video looks amazing but I will never actually make it’, ‘eyeroll at someone from your high school’ and ‘share without pausing to see if image is obviously photoshopped or facts discredited’ button to fully capture that experience.
And that would probably be a feature too far.
Introducing ReactionsToday is our worldwide launch of Reactions — the new Like button with more ways to express yourself. Not every moment you want to share is happy. Sometimes you want to share something sad or frustrating. Our community has been asking for a dislike button for years, but not because people want to tell friends they don’t like their posts. People wanted to express empathy and make it comfortable to share a wider range of emotions. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the right way to do this with our team. One of my goals was to make it as simple as pressing and holding the Like button. The result is Reactions, which allow you to express love, laughter, surprise, sadness or anger. Love is the most popular reaction so far, which feels about right to me!
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, 24 February 2016
More you might like:
Facebook to introduce emoji ‘Reactions’ in place of dislike button
What does your Facebook presence say about you?
You’ll probably dislike Facebook’s new ‘dislike’ button
Comments