Should there also be an Don't Like button on Facebook?
Asked by
rebbel (
35547
)
January 20th, 2012
We are watching an episode of Secretly Pregnant.
In it a girl is talking about her previous pregnancy and the fact that her baby was stillborn.
She then had announced it on Facebook.
She was very sad that (almost) nobody reacted thus not getting any comfort.
I said to my girlfriend that it would have been a bit weird if she had gotten twenty Likes to the message of her deceased baby.
Should there be a Don’t Like button?
Side-questions: Is it a thing of the new era of social media to announce things like deaths and illnesses on sites like Facebook?
Would you use Facebook to write messages about major issues like that?
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13 Answers
I would not. Although I did write about falling in the shower (humorously).
I would be afraid that Don’t Like would bring out people’s mean sides.
I agree with @marinelife…too many people that that “like” stuff too seriously, and to get hit with a bunch of ‘don’t like’s’ would create stupid drama.
We had something like that on wis.dm (and it actually deducted points). It wasn’t helpful and made people feel bad.
The thumbs down button was added to responses on another forum like this one It went badly and they removed them.
Personally, I’m not all that fond of the “like” feature, as it stands. I’m absolutely not fond of negativity. Don’t like would be a thumbs down for me.
It would just start passive aggressive drama.
Don’t like button? We don’t need no stinking don’t like button! If you don’t like something then just say so.
There’s too much drama on facebook already.
No. If they had one it would be like youtube. 8773 normal people will like a video of an awesome thing and 293 morons will “not like” it for some unknown reason. Pointless.
Nah, it would be like putting a “Bad Answer” button on this site. It’s just not a good idea. The options are either “positive” or “neutral” and adding “negative” just creates more negativity :)
Well, I agree with all of you.
But…., I probably worded my question not clear enough, since what I meant was to have such a button for stories and announcements that are not suitable for receiving a Like.
Missy wrote: “We sadly had to put our dog to sleep last morning…:-(”
- rebbel ”Likes! this”
or
- rebbel ”Dislikes this”
I think people should have commented, rather than liked or disliked that status. I don’t see a problem with that announcement either…FB is a communication tool.
Sure, all that drama would be amusing.
“You need a reason to be sad. You don’t need a reason to be happy.”
—Louis Sachar, Sideways Stories from Wayside School
It seems much more appropriate to me that one can express happiness/agreement/approval with something emotive—such as a “Like” on Facebook or a “Great Answer” on Fluther—but must express unhappiness/disagreement/disapproval with words. When you have a positive reaction to something, you might not have anything more to say than “yay” or “me too” or “I agree.” When you have a negative reason for something, however, it is much more productive to make people articulate their problem than merely let them emote it. As such, I would agree with those who say the proper thing to do when you dislike something you see on Facebook is comment.
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