Don’t expect Facebook to jump on the ‘Dislike’ button anytime soon, but Facebook may be taking a different route— a potential ‘Sympathize’ button on posts.
Facebook is taking social media to the next level again. Straying away from Facebook’s menu of 40 emoticons, the “Sympathize” button would be used when someone creates a post that is gloomy or an unfortunate event. How the button will work is if an individual selects a negative emotion like “sad” or “depressed” from Facebook’s fixed list of feelings, the “like” button would be automatically changed to “sympathize.”
Facebook engineer Dan Muriello, revealed the “Sympathize” button last week at a company event. Muriello mentions the button was created by one of his colleagues at a recent company hackathon, an event where Facebook employees collaborate and brainstorm fresh and innovative ideas for the company.
“It would be, ‘five people sympathize with this,’ instead of ‘five people ‘like’ this,'” said Dan Muriello, the Facebook engineer, according to The Huffington Post. “Which of course a lot of people were — and still are — very excited about.”
However, Muriello said that although the new “Sympatize” button was well-received, the Facebook team have decided it isn’t the right time to launch the button— yet.
We’ll be keeping our ear to the ground for this new button! What are your thoughts on the “Sympathize” button? Do you think it’s necessary?