Do You Like Facebook’s New Reactions?

Today Facebook unveiled a new way to “like” anything and everything with their new Reactions buttons. When your mouse hovers over the like button, 6 different options appear. You can press “like” as normal, or you can select one of the other reactions as well: love, haha, yay, wow, sad, and angry.

So far I’ve continued to only “like” things. In fact, I’ll most likely continue to use “like” for the first 5 buttons, and I don’t see myself using the angry button.

However, I think the “sad” option is brilliant. Sometimes people post sad things on Facebook–maybe they lost their job, someone close to them died, or they got some bad news. It’s the type of news that “like” simply does not work for, but “sad” is perfect. It shows sympathy and compassion.

And yes, it’s no replacement for actually reaching out to the person, but there’s something about a mass of people expressing their shared support that actually means something. It’s a critical mass of people who have your back.

What do you think about Facebook reactions? Will you use them? Do you wish The Oatmeal had designed them?

get-facebook-reactions-anywhere

3 thoughts on “Do You Like Facebook’s New Reactions?”

  1. I’m actually surprised it took them so long. Maybe Mark only has friends with good news and never had to click “like” when someone posted “Having a hard day today, my dog died.”
    I try to stay away from “like” unless I like it. Anything else deserves a written note or a phone call doesn’t it?
    The same way that when people write “HBD” instead of “Happy Birthday Bill” it drives me a little crazy. They were willing to take a second out of their day. But not more.
    Doesn’t it take the social out of the media?

    Reply
  2. Conor: I can definitely relate to that for birthdays. If I want to wish them a happy birthday, I don’t like or comment on their wall. I write them a direct e-mail.

    Reply
  3. We’ve had them for ages (as part of the testing region), and though used them a fair bit originally due to the novelty, I don’t find I use them as much now, other than the std “like”.
    I think it dilutes feedback a bit too much.

    Reply

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