With the introduction of the “Like” button to Facebook, we guess the obvious opposite would be a “Dislike” button but unfortunately despite many users asking for it, Facebook has yet to implement it. After all would it be more appropriate to dislike an upsetting status, photo, or video, rather than liking it? Well the semi-good news for Facebook users is that the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is considering the idea and mulling it over. This was revealed during an hour long Q&A session at Facebook’s headquarters.
Facebook is well aware that its community wants a way to dislike something negative, rather than having to “like” everything. Asked by a U.C. Davis law student during a public Q&A today if Facebook will ever add a dislike button, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company is “thinking” about it, so that expressing a negative sentiment “ends up being a force for good.” Zuckerberg acknowledged that the company knows that many people think the “like” sentiment is not appropriate for posts such as when someone is sick. But he seemed to quickly backtrack. “The like button is valuable because it’s a quick way to share a positive sentiment,” Zuckerberg said. “Some people have asked for a dislike button so they can say something isn’t good, and we’re not going to do that. I don’t think that’s good for the community.” People have long asked for a dislike button, and the question was one of the most common among the thousands of people who had posted comments on the Facebook page for today’s Q&A with Zuckerberg. And the CEO, wearing the same grey T-shirt he always wears, said he knows where people are coming from.
