Facebook Dislike Button and Other Gestures

Are you also among those people who want to have a Facebook Dislike button? Soon Facebook will make a new feature available that is called “Facebook Gestures”. This feature is aimed at solving the long pending “Like” button problem. This little button has given Facebook a great boost on Internet and now has become a very important way of sharing content. However, more often than not, the term “Like” conveys a wrong message. Liking a webpage, song, video or photo may convey that the person is endorsing the content. Whereas the true objective of the Like Button is only to share the content. You may not endorse or like the content –but just because you found it sharable, you tend to press the omnipresent Like Button.

Facebook will soon introduce more gestures.

Earlier the Like Button on Facebook pages used to read “Fan”. People clicked that button so as to get the news feed from respective pages –but the term “Fan” also implied that the person is a fan of that particular page. Facebook solved this problem to some extent by changing the text “Fan” with “Like”. But still, at the very least, “Like” implies endorsement.

Not only that this implied meaning conveys an endorsement –but also it sometimes can create a very embarrassing situation. For example, I have seen people “Liking” the news regarding demise of a relative of their friend. Obviously, the “Liking” people don’t mean that they “enjoyed” the news! Some people have become so habitual of clicking Like Button that they have stopped thinking of the implication of using the word “Like” on Facebook. There are also people who don’t blindly click Like Button and would have to opt for comment in order to convey that they have read the news update. Then there also are people who fear the Like Button and think twice before clicking it (lest their boss see the endorsement of something he doesn’t like!)

To get around this messy issue –Facebook is going to come up with Facebook Gestures. This feature will provide users the facility to express a gesture on a particular news item. If you just want to convey that you have read the item –you’ll have a “Read” button and if you want to say you have watched a movies –you can use “Watched” button. Similarly you can choose “Listened to” button for songs.

I am assuming that Facebook will also include “Disliked” gesture as I have noticed a lot of people are asking for it. Lets see what all gestures Facebook will show us!