Menlo Park – Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, announced on Tuesday that the company is working on the new “dislike” button, to let uses express their empathy for sad or depressing statues.
In a town hall-styled Q&A at the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Zuckerberg said the new feature will also include buttons like “I’m sorry” and “interesting”, for users have been long asking for it, ever since Facebook introduced the “like” button back in 2009.
“People have asked about the ‘dislike’ button for many years,” Zuckerberg said. “Today is the day that I actually get to say we are working on it.”
Although it was a long and difficult process, the feature is now ready to be tested. The only concern Zcukenberg has is that people have to limit the use of the button “unlike” only to sad statues that evoke empathy, but not to all statues.
“What they really want is an ability to express empathy,” Zuckerberg said. “If you’re expressing something sad… it may not feel comfortable to ‘like’ that post, but your friends and people want to be able to express that they understand.”
However, the company’s concerns seem to be on point, since after the announcement several negative reactions have been posted on social media. Some believe the button will end up being used to reject or bully other users.
The feature has been also considered another way Facebook would use to track its users’ preferences. Others believe that “empathy” is not exactly the first word that comes to mind when reading “dislike”.
Bullying on Facebook
According to a study released by Knowthenet, Facebook is the worst social networking site for internet bullying . Eighty seven percent of teenagers who reported cyber abuse said it came from the giant in social media.
Nineteen year old boys are the most victimized by bullies on Facebook, an age dangerous to be bullied by, given that suicide rates are particularly high among this demographic. Only one in five teens said their first reaction would be to tell a parent.
Nonetheless, Facebook has tried to have it covered. In the “help” bottom, the company offers some tools to aid people deal with bullying and harassment depending on the seriousness of the situation. Users can either un-friend, block or report the person who is cyber bullying them or others. The company also recommends to not retaliate at the bullies, not keep it as a secret and to document and save the post where the user is being bullied.
Source: The daily caller