A lot happens in 1 week, especially when Mark Zuckerberg talks about one of Facebook’s most requested additions. The dislike button.
In a Live Q&A this week, Mark Zuckerberg was asked “Why doesn’t Facebook offer more options other than “like”. Like a “I’m sorry” or “Dislike” button”. Zucks replied with a highly anticipated. “We’re working on it”. I’m sorry to tell you, it won’t be a “dislike” button. They are working on a way to show empathy for victims of tragedies and other things that are inappropriate to Like.
With news outlets going around the internet freaking out about this possible addition, here is the raw 411 on the dislike hype on Facebook.
- It’s won’t be a dislike button (Facebook isn’t about voting peoples stuff up and down) – That is straight from Zuckerburgs mouth.
- They have an idea that will be released into testing soon
- It’s surprisingly more complicated than we think
Facebook relies on our interactions to help them to curate the information in our news feeds. This is exactly why a simple dislike button won’t work.
What if they built a dislike button?
If Facebook built a dislike button, it would only cause confusion. If you share a post about victims of a natural disaster or a family member passing away, and I dislike it, does that mean I dislike that the tragedy or the passing happened? That I dislike the victims? or that I dislike that you posted it? Going in with something that sounds SO simple will create great uncertainty in a way that conflicts with how Facebook builds products.
It really isn’t as easy as we think.
Here is what he said it might look like
Facebook needs to find a way for us to emote our feelings towards a story as quickly as we Like something. With Facebook being a global forum for people to connect it needs to be designed in a way that it has to be deeply understandable, translateable across languages, impactful and not all at confusing…
Remembering that people’s emotions are involved, it’s not going to be as easy as slapping up a button they ‘think’ might work and something as simple as an Empathy button probably cut it either… Maybe it’s going to be a button that Facebook recommends based on the content of your post? Just like you can choose the emotion you’re feeling when updating your status. Like “Sorry” or “Thinking of you”. At this stage it’s all still speculation. What I do know for sure is that it ain’t simple and it ain’t a dislike button.
Here is the full video of what Zucks had to say