(Mirror Daily, United States) – For years, Facebook users have been restlessly asking for a dislike button for the simple reason that if there are posts we like, there are some we don’t. However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been stubborn in refusing to provide one, and for good reasons.
But first things first; it’s a fact that not everything we see on Facebook is likeable. Some posts are sad or tragic, while others are downright distasteful or offensive. Liking such things only sends a wrong message, so there must be a way to show that we do not agree with, nor approve of these posts.
Simply ignoring them might feel like an invitation for our friends or acquaintances to keep posting them, but Facebook has finally announced the long sought-after dislike button. Even though details of how it will be implemented are still unclear, users have started wondering why it took Zuckerberg so long to push the button.
Truth is that adding a dislike button to a social media environment as prominent as Facebook is no easy task. The ‘like’ button has enjoyed a sort of ambiguity so far; pressing ‘like’ on a picture of a beautiful sunset is pretty straightforward, but doing the same on a picture of Syrian refugees is a bit trickier.
But is this ambiguity better than opening the can of worms that the Dislike button can be? There are plenty of reasons why people would like it to become a reality, as there are plenty of posts we see during our daily scrolls that we don’t really like. Basically, people would like to get rid of the spam that clutters their news feeds and adds to the effort of scrolling status updates.
There are plenty of users annoying enough to justify the restless request for a dislike button, such as those who constantly post pictures of their food or those who keep sending you Candy Crush invites. There are also the cryptic posters who make no sense (Twitter is always a better option when it comes to boring posts!), and the annoying commenters.
Most of these people really just mean well, but a dislike button would help make it stop. Critics argued that negativity and hatred would spike on the social network, so disliking itself would become a risk. Therefore, they suggested that ‘dislike’ could be made anonymous.
However, this comes with its own dilemmas: isn’t that going to open the door to bullying? Trolling would reach intolerable levels, with throngs of them crawling out from under bridges to dislike even the most pleasant posts.
As much as people want it, the dislike button is a great risk. We just hope Facebook has taken everything into consideration and adjusted it to avoid abuse.
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