This month Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the site will launch a dislike button which seems to be what many people have been waiting for, but could be unnecessary or not wanted by some.
I've heard some positive talk about the button, but it is different from the vision Zuckerberg had about a year ago. At a Q-and-A last year, he said, "Some people have asked for a dislike button because they want to say, 'That thing isn’t good.' And that’s not something that we think is good for the world. So we’re not going to build that." He didn't think something that negative should be added to the typically positive social media site.
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However, Zuckerberg knew that there needed to be more options for people other than like. According to an article from Slate written last year, "When people share 'sad moments in their lives,' or 'tough cultural or social things' on Facebook, Zuckerberg said, others don’t always feel comfortable pressing 'like.'" And now, he's ready to make changes.
At the time, it seemed Zuckerberg didn't necessarily want a dislike button, but a "sympathize" button or "hug" button as said in the article. This could be helpful in terms of having something else to click instead of just a like button on a post about animal abuse or a child fighting cancer. According to CNN, "Zuckerberg has admitted that 'not every moment is good' and perhaps a dislike button isn't such a bad idea after all."
The dislike button could be a negative addition, but Facebook isn't all positivity, and people will continue to negatively comment on news articles and other posts. You can go to any article, particularly that involving social justice and see nasty and usually ignorant remarks in the comment section. People aren't deterred from writing what they think despite their name being attached to it, so people most likely will dislike as they please.
While it may not exactly be nice to dislike someone's post, why shouldn't we be allowed that option? It's OK to not like things. If it is offensive, Facebook allows users to report it, but perhaps there needs to be something more than that. If we don't particularly like something, we can comment on it, share it with comments, or simply keep it to ourselves. Is that enough?
Think about who else uses Facebook besides your friends and family. News outlets and companies have Facebook pages too. Perhaps a dislike button would allow consumers to directly tell a company that they don't like what they're doing or could use a different approach. The company would be able to see how many people disliked it right away and could maybe consider changing direction. It could help news outlets with what they should post to their Facebook page or what's getting the most response, positive or negative. This could possibly be constructive for some companies, and maybe not for others.
As Vanity Fair points out, so much of what we consume in terms of posts or other news on our feeds is through the like button. It's possible that another button (or multiple buttons) need to be made because the like button has too much power.
I don't think I like the idea of a "dislike" button necessarily, but I do think that an "empathize" button could benefit the Facebook community overall.
