And by good, I mean tragically bad, because at least when it comes to interacting with large companies, celebrities and large social media entities where participation is practically anonymous, there’s going to be a whole lot of disliking about to happen.
That’s right, Facebook has announced that they are going to create a Dislike function, because people apparently want to be able to express empathy:
The exact form a “Dislike” button may take is still up in the air. “What [users] really want is the ability to express empathy,” Zuckerberg added. “Not every moment is a good moment.”
Dislike for empathy! And not the copious amounts of irrational hate, pessimism and negativity that the internet in general is known for.
I give the Dislike function maybe . . . five minutes, after it’s enabled until the first victim of mass-disliking is thrown onto a cross and crucified. It could be McDonald’s, it could be Wal-Mart. Maybe it will be 75,000 jealous fatty bitches Disliking Taylor Swift’s latest status update, or 128,000 haters Disliking Justin Bieber’s latest photo update. President Obama’s Facebook page will have every single carefully curated status updated blasted with two Dislikes for every single like given, retroactively.
The point is, there’s kind of been a reason why there hasn’t been a Dislike button to this point. Internet users simply don’t need the ability to be able to express dislike, a segment of a negative connotation, when simply not hitting like was sufficient enough. Giving internet users the ability to specifically state what they don’t like is basically begging Facebook to turn into a breeding ground of Disliking things. As if the internet needs another means for people to troll.
Imagine the people out there who will inevitably commit suicide because not only is their shit not getting Likes, because of the fact that they’re actually getting Dislikes, is going to make them jump off bridges or shoot themselves. There are already a tremendous amount of people out there with self-esteem issues in the first place, that really use social media as something of a crutch to create a persona that people might actually like more than their real selves; now giving people the ability to state their dislike for everything is begging to further culture self-esteem problems within individuals.
Ultimately, this is a terrible idea. I sure know it’s going to eat at me the first time I ever see someone Dislike something I post, and I like to think that I’ve got a fairly decent thick skin. Imagine what it’s going to be like for people who live and die by the almighty Likes and eventual Dislikes?
