Do we really want a Facebook ‘Dislike’ button?

Photo caption: Facebook users were quick to fantasize about the annoying “Friends” they could shoot down without explanation.

Facebook is working on a “Dislike” button — an announcement that sent the Internet into uproar. The development itself though is a lot less scandalous than misleading clickbait titles have suggested. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg clarified that he wasn’t after creating a community where people’s posts and significant life moments were voted up and down by the mob. The move was more about giving users a broader spectrum of actions through which they could express their empathy toward what other people were going through. “Not every moment is a good moment,” Zuckerberg said. And indeed many have resorted to “Liking” heartwrenching stories whenever words felt empty and they had no other way of saying “I hear you.”

This possible new addition to our social media experience is set to undergo a trial period with a very limited audience. After then, Facebook will decide whether or not to release it to the public.

Palpable bloodlust

That’s the accurate, less exciting truth of it. Much more notable than the facts, however were the knee-jerk reactions many had to the news. People were quick to express their excitement at the possibility of shooting down all the annoying “Friends” they continue to be connected with. And even after the true nature of the button was revealed, online news outlets continued to enumerate and fantasize about the kind of posts it would be nice to have a hater field day with.

I am definitely not above this — especially since I have no patience to engage in those novel-length comment discussion threads. It’s one thing to express a dissenting opinion, but I shudder at the thought of being sucked into an online pingpong match with no end of ego in sight. So the idea of having a convenient, one-second means of saying “Ugh” and not having to explain (they can Google, right?) does feel like a cathartic piece of heaven — to finally have more options than classy silence or subtle unfriending/unfollowing which, let’s face it, don’t give you much release.

But just like guns and nuclear weapons, after you’ve masturbated to your fantasies of power, you then have to face the possibility of the same power being used on you. What would it look like if we could all diss each other at the click of a button? If shade became more accessible than common decency?

Social media then and now

Having lived through the earlier Livejournal era of the Internet, I know what it’s like to inhabit an environment where people shared for the sake of sharing. It was a time when people could talk freely about the worst of days and the worst of their feelings. The word “branding” was still only being used by marketing professionals. We, the common folk were left to be ourselves. It may have resulted in an inordinate amount of navel gazing, but the point was we had a lot of space to just be.

The same cannot be said about today’s landscape. It is impossible to think of something to share without mentally fastforwarding to how it will be received — to how you will be perceived. With Google searches, real-time reactions, tagged photos, the possibility of sex scandals, and people more than eager to make your sh*t go viral, every move we now do is a production — or at the very least comes with an awareness that you have a scrutinizing audience. There is already barely any space to breathe and just tell others what’s up. And when I’m faced with people’s opinions at every turn, I think it’s reasonable to ask that they not come within an inch of my face. That if there was anything they wanted to throw, they at least had to put in the mental work in order to do so. Do we really need to make hating easier than it already is? Are we not already walking on egg shells over potential blood baths?

I still concede that the “Dislike” button is a delicious and succulent fantasy (all those Bible-thumping homophobic posts come to mind). But we humans are notorious for not being careful what we wish for. So I guess it’s a good thing that we’re not getting it — at least not yet.

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