Facebook’s New Like Is Unlikable

Facebook! What terms won’t you redefine? First friendship, and now the verb of liking itself. You see, that ubiquitous little “Like” button emblazoned across the internet used to just note on your news feed that you clicked it. No more.

Now, the Like button has swallowed up what used to be the Share button – posting a full preview of anything you Like to your profile, and showing up in the news feeds of your friends. And this seems slightly irritating! Saying I like something and saying Here, look at this thing seem conceptually separate. I might like a video of two cats playfully licking each other. Do I want to share it with everyone I know? Probably not. Conversely, I might want to share an interesting story about rampant HIV statistics, but it feels a little weird to say that I Like it. The impetus? Bigger mentions mean more traffic for liked articles, which means more money for sites, which means more sites using the Like button, which means more money for Facebook. Hurrah! [Inside Facebook via Geekosystem]


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