What People Are Saying About Facebook's Reactions Feature
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Facebook rolled out its much-anticipated reactions feature on Wednesday, giving users several options beyond hitting "like" on posts. Users can now react to Facebook posts with "love," "haha," "wow," "sad," and "angry" buttons as well:
Facebook
The reactions feature comes nearly six months after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would release some sort of "dislike" button in the future due to user demand. After first testing the reactions in Spain, Ireland and several other countries in the fall, Facebook decided which images would make the final cut. The reactions "yay" and "confused" were ultimately removed from the list, The Verge reports. "Love" was the most popular reaction, according to TODAY.
“This is just the beginning,” Facebook engineering director Tom Alison said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “The team is still going to be looking at how people are using this. We’re going to be learning a lot. We’re going to be iterating on this.”
In September, Zuckerberg explained the necessity of different reactions at a town hall event. For example, some users are uncomfortable hitting "like" on a friend's post about losing a loved one, but still want to show sympathy and support.
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"Not every moment is a good moment and if you are sharing something that is sad, whether it's something in current events, like the refugees crisis that touches you, or if a family member passed away, then it may not feel comfortable to 'like' that post,'' he said. "But your friends and people want to be able to express that they understand and that they relate to you, so I do think it's important to give people more options than just 'like' as a quick way to emote and share what they're feeling on a post."
Though some people were unhappy that Facebook didn't add an actual "dislike" button to the reactions list, Zuckerberg said last year that his goal is not to "turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people's posts."
AP/Marcio Jose Sanchez - apimages.com
"That doesn't seem like the kind of community that we want to create: you don't want to go through the process of sharing some moment that was important to you in your day and have someone downvote it," Zuckerberg said.
Here are some reactions to the new Facebook reactions:
Facebook
