Disliking the New Facebook Feature
With 1.4 billion users in the second quarter of 2015, Facebook has gone through many changes since its release in 2004. As we scroll down through our newsfeed on a daily basis, we might sometimes come across stories that provoke sadness, anger and annoyance. However, due to Facebook only having “like” buttons, people are prevented from expressing their dislike other than writing it in the comments section.
In a recent Q&A session with Mark Zuckerberg, he confirmed that the Facebook team is working on a “dislike” button. He supported his stance by saying “like” isn’t always appropriate for certain updates or pictures. Although this new idea may be a great addition to Facebook, many people stand against him. The “dislike button” will not only hurt relationships, but it will also lead to bullying and triggering aggressive behavior online. The whole idea of “negativity” on a social networking site where the average U.S. consumer spends 40 minutes daily (keeping in mind that many teenagers almost live upon it nowadays) should not even be an idea to be considered.
A question that should constantly be posed is “do we really want to create an environment for ourselves where we will feel uncomfortable with the number of dislikes and assume hate among our community based on that pointless number?” A dislike button would create a whole new drama on social media. Imagine a student posting a picture of a flower and a group of kids behind the screen deciding to “troll” by putting up a bunch of “dislikes.” How would that student feel once he or she checks the notifications only to find out that there are 73 dislikes with only a single like? Students would come in the next day to school saying, “Oh, he or she got this number of dislikes. What a loser.” This situation is pretty much self-explanatory: a case of bullying. The student would only feel bad about him or herself and think that people actually don’t like him or her, instead of learning to embrace the person he or she truly is. Depending on the person, however, he or she might feel offended and start displaying aggressive behavior, only creating unpleasant feelings and hatred towards others. In all truth, there should not be any method of trying to haze someone online or anything that would foster negativity.
Some people who support the “dislike button” might mention how Reddit and Youtube already have this similar notion implemented in their system and then jump to the question: “If those social media networks have it, why can’t Facebook have it too?” To start, people should not compare Reddit and Youtube with Facebook. They serve very different purposes, and in terms of how much time people invest in each of them, Facebook is by far the winner. In short terms, Reddit is just an online bulletin where people submit links, questions or whatever. On Youtube, people post videos over a very broad range of interests. On the other hand, Facebook is more personal, where people post updates about their lives through statuses, pictures and videos. Also, everyone knows what the user did, such as liking someone’s picture/video or commenting somewhere. Unlike Facebook’s possible open dislike button, Reddit and Youtube have anonymous down-votes and dislike buttons. It would obviously be a much better idea for Facebook to keep the dislike buttons anonymous. But Facebook users want to see what everyone else is doing, and since the like buttons have been shown with the users’ names, deciding to keep the “dislike” button would disappoint the majority of the users. We already know that keeping anything anonymous wouldn’t work out for Facebook. If they still were to go ahead with the dislikes, as mentioned before, it would toxify relationships. Friends would feel offended by those around them and misunderstandings would be unavoidable.
Mark Zuckerberg is leading Facebook in the wrong direction by introducing this new feature which he thinks will please his audience. But in reality, the “dislike” button will only create more severe problems. The aftermath of the “dislike” button is something to consider beforehand as there are many more negative impacts than advantages. Surely nobody will want to wake up to a new version of Facebook in which the atmosphere of negativity is pervasive. ♥