Despite it being the holidays and everyone's in a cheerful mood, we want to get a bit negative. Facebook's "like" button sure is a celebrity both on and off the internet. "Like" has become almost as ubiquitous as "googling." But lets talk about the like button's evil cousin: the dislike button. We're interested whether or not you'd use it but also the implications of its existence.
Its not like no-one hasn't already thought about the dislike button. It has its own Facebook group with 3.3 million likes. It also has its own Firefox and Chrome plugins. (But neither work too well considering you need the plug-in to even see the dislike feature.) People are clearly interested. So why deny them?
There are a few good reasons. It is in Facebook's best interests to keep the conversation positive. If Facebook were to introduce a dislike button, the conversation could quickly turn to an argument, a de-friend, or if extreme enough, leaving Facebook all together. Social media is about positivity and making connections. Disliking something ushers in a great potential to interrupt that utopia Facebook has attempted to establish. Additionally, Facebook is all about the ad revenue. It isn't very smart for Facebook to allow people to dislike their sponsors. Additionally, all things "liked" are tallied and stored so Facebook gets more and more information on your behavior and interests.
But the dislike button needn't be all negative. Users could just as easy dislike a post that has a negative connotation in the first place like "I just got fired." It also leads to some funny dialogue between people. See Youtube's voting system. Various memes have cropped up stemming from the negative reviews of videos. Most notably, often seen in the "Top Comments" section is the "(blank) [number of negative reviews] people haven't (blank) [positive situation or action related to the video]."
So we must ask, if Facebook were to introduce a potentially negative commenting option for people, would you use it? Or do you like to stick with the positivity when it comes to your internet interactions when it is directly connected to your name?
(Image: Flickr member T tia licensed for use under Creative Commons.)
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I use the dislike button for youtube videos all the time, which is nice. If something sucks I can voice that opinion. Justin Bieber's "Baby" was the most disliked youtube video of all time until Rebecca Black released her meme video, "Friday." Where would these great facts be without the dislike button?
"It is in Facebook's best interests to keep the conversation positive."
Of course it is, why would they allow the concept of reality (choice) into a discussion.
How popular would things 'really' be.
How big would certain movements 'really' be.
How about having like as a default for statuses/shares but having an option to change to dislike if it's something negative like getting fired, or someone dying? You know, so there is a radio button with two options, 'like' and 'dislike', and when you post your status you select which one it should be before sharing...