Users revel in calling out friends and family on bullshit over social media
Photo: Kim Wiens
Since its creation in 2004, Facebook has introduced its users to a new platform of social sharing and launched Myspace into social obscurity. It has become part of a global phenomenon, helping you keep track of your friends, as well as stalking the object of your affection online before meeting in person. Recently it became Facebook official that Facebook will be introducing a new dislike button.
This button comes as great news to many users who will finally be able to tell their friend from the 5th grade how they really feel about their relationship status, and passive-aggressively dislike pictures of friends having fun without them.
“This just means that Facebook is a more honest platform, now I feel like I can just be myself and express how I really feel,” said fourth-year English student Daniel Butler. Many people like Butler are excited, while others believe a dislike button is just not enough.
“There are just some things so agitating that a simple dislike is not enough to truly express the sentiments I feel,” said Sarah Fields, a second-year engineering student and avid Facebook user since 2006. “I need a button to let people know how I’m feeling without actually telling them. I need a ‘I don’t want to talk to you button’ or a ‘we’re not even friends button’.”
Popular among other user’s’ suggestions for buttons include a “Leave me alone” button as a response to the millions of Candy Crush and Farmville requests from people who seem to have endless amounts of spare time. Others suggested a “bullshit” button for all the inaccurate information circulating the platform, as well as a “that’s not how Facebook works” button for family members who ask about your welfare in the comment section of your pictures.
Other social media sites are now adding their own honesty buttons, such as Instagram’s new “no one needs to see this picture” button for pictures that probably shouldn’t have been posted, as well as a “another picture of your food, seriously?” button for those who can’t stop sharing their latest meal. Another hotly anticipated feature is the “you’re so using a filter” for any friends who look a little too airbrushed in their #nofilter posts.
Twitter is also getting set to unveil a line of buttons such as the “#notarealhastag” button for when users tweet random hashtags, as well as the “seriously no one cares” button just to let people know how they really feel about a tweet.
While the dislike button is in the works, some people are already arming themselves with uninformed commentary to oppose dislike button supporters. As with most things on Facebook, it seems like people are divided on the concept.
