You're Going To 'Like' This: Facebook Is Finally Working On A 'Dislike' Button
But it won't do what you think. Ha!
By Sadho Ram — 16 Sep 2015, 01:34 PM
Rejoice, people! For Mark Zuckerberg has had a change of heart and finally decided to make a "Dislike" button — or something in that line — and it's apparently going to head into testing soon!
"People have asked about the 'Dislike' button for many years ... and today is a special day, because today is the day that I actually get to say we are working on it and are very close to shipping a test of it," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today during a public Q&A session, according to CNBC.
theverge.com
Mark, however, said that Facebook would take pains to avoid becoming like the popular online community Reddit, where posts are voted up or down depending on the whims of users
“That doesn’t seem like the kind of community that we want to create: You don’t want to go through the process of sharing some moment that was important to you in your day and have someone ‘downvote’ it,” he said. “What they really want is the ability to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment.”
qz.com
Of course, it likely won't be called the "Dislike" button at all
In fact, Facebook's primary goal is to figure out how to let users "express empathy," Zuckerberg added, in situations in which liking a status, article, or photo is inappropriate. That means a "Dislike" button is likely off the table, as it's not complex enough for what Zuckerberg sounds like he wants it to do. And we all know how subtle Facebook really is.
Many of the ways we communicate on the site, from the passive-aggressive like to the poke to the manipulative use of read receipts, can have hidden meanings. Those meanings change depending on which friend we're interacting with, giving Facebook users a series of social cues that go beyond words.
theverge.com