Will Facebook users like new ‘dislike’ button?
Emma Lord, Bustle: “The benevolent gods of social media have finally heard our prayers. Facebook is adding a ‘dislike’ button. ... Never again will you be forced to ‘like’ a status about a dead pet ... with the comment ‘liking for moral support’! No longer will you have to scroll past someone’s charged political post without passive aggressively making your own opinion known!”
Tony Bradley, Forbes: “Adding a ‘dislike’ button or equivalent will just pour gasoline on the fire of pointless Facebook drama or possibly lead to (a) proliferation of potential responses. We are at the ... beginning of the 2016 election campaign cycle with a whole clown car of potential candidates either loved or hated. ... A ‘dislike’ button will simplify the process of ‘anti-liking.’ (It’s) a rabbit hole we don’t want to go down.”
Paul Mottram, PRWeek: “Perhaps the real reason for the absence of a more straightforward ‘dislike’ button is more commercial. Most big advertisers and marketers will hate it. ... More enlightened marketers, however, should see it as a positive challenge. ... Pretty much every concept of the buyer journey ... begins with people who don’t yet know, think or feel anything about a brand. ... Understanding more about this group ... will lead to disproportionate gains further along the journey.”
Matt Swider, TechRadar: “Facebook is playing right into the hands of the snarkiest generation in history, motivating 20- and 30-year-old millennials to downvote posts without ever reading beyond the headline. The ‘everything is wrong with the world, and I want to let it be known’ attitude is pervasive. ... Meanwhile authentic positivity is rare. ... When (dissenting opinion) is used as a mischievous weapon, it’s going to become a burden that interrupts your newsfeed stream ... with undeserved negativity.”
Rafi Schwartz, Good: The goal ... seems not to be to add a barbed arrow of displeasure into a Facebook user’s quiver of stock responses. Rather, it’s to provide a measure of nuance. ... What could Facebook do to help make the site ... a better place? The key, as Mark Zuckerberg points out, is ‘ empathy.’ ... Imagine, then, buttons that could express an array of conditional responses: sympathy, support, curiosity. ... The rate of interactions between people could increase, (and) a sense of connection ... no matter how fleeting or ephemeral.”