(source: http://www.thewrap.com/facebook-wont-force-you-to-like-dead-pets-anymore/)
Just couple days after the 12th birthday of Facebook, this social networking site came up with the solution of one of the most controversial topic at all, the “like“ button. Finally, we have more option to express our feelings about a comment, a post or a picture of our friends, than just “like” it!
It is time to welcome five new extra emotion buttons!
Every user of Facebook received more option for his/her “silent” comment. Without words, we might express our emotions by five new emotion buttons. Next to the thumbs up (like), we can now use also Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry emoticons.
Thumbs-up is still in the same place and visible as before. Under every picture, video, comment or post, there is this well-known like button. But now, the thumb is in a closed circle. If you hold on the button, it will show other emotions. By your mouse then, you can choose the right mood. So, Facebook right now will count all the reaction, not just the “like” ones. The emotions are sorted by its popularity among your friends. First seen is the most voted one. If you want to know, who from your friends voted, for instance, for a Haha button, than just click on it!
The total count is still present. However, observing the use of the new buttons, it will need time to change user’s views and to not click always on the old thumbs-up. On the other hand, it is a step forward for the users, who called for more emotion button already a long time ago. On Facebook, we might also find groups called “we want DISLIKE button on FB” and others. “There’s still no “Dislike” button, and that’s sure to piss some people off,” the techcrunch.com reveals.
“This design is smart because if you don’t want to use Reactions, you don’t have to, and there aren’t six buttons on every post,” the techcrunch.com says. “I want to really make it easy for people to give other types of feedback than the Like button in News Feed” claimed Mark Zuckerberg to his team, according to News Feed engineering manager Tom Alison.
The problem treating us with the like button was, if something bad has happened to your friend and he shared his tragedy on Facebook, to give him “like” was incomprehensible and writing comments is not always the best way, right? To “like” a bad news is tragicomically embarrassing. Right now, you can express your empathy without words, thanks to the new buttons.
Facebook writes officially: “If someone uses a Reaction, we will infer they want to see more of that type of post. In the beginning, it won’t matter if someone likes, “wows” or “sad” a post. Over time, we hope to learn how the different Reactions should be weighted differently by News Feed to do a better job of showing everyone the stories they most want to see.”
And how has Facebook chosen the particular emotions and their names?
The research of the one-word comments and stickers has been taken on News Feed posts. For example, one of the most used short comment is “lol”. So we have got the emoji “haha”.
As Facebook claims, it is a step towards the development of the international friendships. In the multicultural world in which we live, we might have friends posting comments in their own languages. We can even understand them, but for a comment, we are not able to write so well, and the “like” is too much superficial and general. Now, we have a chance to express the understanding.