Facebook listened to the cries of many users and is developing a feature similar to a “dislike” button.
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Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg has revealed in a Q&A session at the company’s Cupertino headquarters that work is ongoing on finally bringing Dislike functionality to the site.
Zuckerberg didn’t definitively say exactly what shape this empathy button will take, but it seems it will likely be some form of an “I’m sorry” option.
“I don’t think one word expresses a response to something as tragic as a hurricane or a natural disaster”, says Rivers, of Fox Chapel. “But your friends and people want to be able to express that they understand”.
You know, not every moment is a good moment, right?
Zuckerberg acknowledged that not all moments in life are happy ones, and it is awkward to click “like” on a post to express feelings such as when a close relative dies or sharing thoughts on issues like current refugee crisis.
But he said it’s important to give people more options than just “like” as “a quick way to emote and share their feelings on a post”. The button might not be an actual “Dislike“, but it will address something important for Facebook subscribers. “I don’t think there should be a button if you can type it and send it. Society just has a need to tell everyone they like or dislike something”.
Want to quickly react to a friend’s Facebook post about an accident or a sick relative but don’t want to hit the like button? “Not only does this provide Facebook with more data but it has the potential to drive more traffic by providing people a significant new experience”.
Facebook has been cautious in how it launched the new sentiment option because it was concerned about how it would be used.
Testing of the dislike button should be rolling out soon. Probably not, as even something that got a million “Dislikes” is at least getting attention. Though people want to empathize with them, it would be inappropriate to like the posts.
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This actually makes a lot of sense and is consistent with what Zuckerberg announced at a town hall meeting last December, as he dismissed the idea of a “dislike” button. The new button will be closer to a sign of empathy than a sign of disagreement.
