Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg recently confirmed that the rumoured “dislike” button is being worked on and approaching the testing phase. Although he feared that the button would promote negativity, Zuckerberg says that there is need for a button that shows empathy for sad posts, for which a “like” button wouldn’t suffice.
Now what does this mean for Facebook? Will this “dislike” button, which is meant to show empathy keep its function, or will it be used spitefully?
This topic is very controversial among users and its implementation has the potential to either make or break the company. Supporters have been requesting this button for years, arguing that the site needs such a button to show support in negative situations, and to provide more choices to the user. On the other hand, the opposition argues that this button would promote conflict and increase cyber bullying. We know the cyber space can be dangerous, especially among youth, so why add gas to the fire?
Zuckerberg hasn’t yet confirmed that this addition will specifically be a “dislike” button, but in the testing stage they will experiment with different designs. There has been talk that a solidarity button or a simple range of emoticons would be better suited for the purpose, and I believe that to be true. If this button is meant to give users the ability to show more emotions than just “like”, why not give them that through emoticons? Not only would emoticons allow the user to display an array of emotions, but it would also mitigate the negativity aspect that a dislike button would have.
References:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/facebook-dislike-empathy-1.3229681
http://www.zdnet.com/article/why-facebooks-dislike-button-is-such-a-smart-marketing-move/
http://qz.com/503361/facebooks-dislike-button-is-going-to-be-a-disaster/
http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/59/590x/Facebook-Dislike-Button-Real-Confirm-Release-Date-UK-605510.jpg
http://www.thatericalper.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/facebook-dislike-button.png
https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/facebook-emoji1.png?w=738