a Little Light

One of the common trends on Facebook right now is the plea for a dislike button. Ever since the inception of the like button, people have been clamoring for the addition of the dislike compliment.

But here’s what everyone needs to understand. Facebook is selling a product – it’s web-based application to share and express content. Every time you upload pictures, status updates, videos and interact with Facebook applications, Facebook as an asset and a company becomes more valuable because it’s proven to attract attention and customers, such as you and I.

And one key component of the Facebook product is its experience. Facebook wants you to enjoy using its service, and wants you to become addicted so you’ll keep coming back. In the latest fund-raising round to keep Facebook with cash assets, Microsoft evaluated Facebook at $15 billion. $15 billion. Just for letting users post status updates, send messages and play with applications.

Most people don’t know that the like button was actually ripped off from another web service, FriendFeed. So Facebook never originated this idea, but it certainly has been the most effective in its implementation; in other words, Facebook has seen it used elsewhere, and used it appropriately. Facebook would never do something that it didn’t believe would work – and risk alienating its 300 million users in the process.

With all this in mind, it’s easy to see why Facebook would never endorse the creation of the dislike button. Facebook wants users to keep coming back to share content and enjoy their experience while they are logged in; they will never take risk and chance on a large scale – they beta test everything before public release.

Imagine for a moment if Facebook were to create a dislike button. And say your status said something like “I’m watching House!” or “I got an A on my test I didn’t study for!” If people disliked your status, a part of you would feel discouraged and hurt. You might second guess future status updates or media upload, thus going against Facebook’s desire and wishes for your experience with their product. But only enabling like, you only get positive reinforcement, encouraging you to continue posting updates and uploading pictures. While people may express their dislike through status comments, it requires more effort, and most people who don’t care or dislike your post will probably pass over, or ignore your status/content.

So quit joining “if X,000,000 people join, we’ll get dislike!” groups and adding “OMFG, WTF, DISLIKE BUTTON” applications, you won’t get your dislike button. If you really want to dislike posts, quit Facebook by discontinuing/deactivating your account in the Settings menu, stating your reason for quitting because of a lack of the dislike button. Then maybe it’ll happen. Otherwise, use comments to express your negativity.

So quit telling Facebook what to do, they are the largest social networking site in the world for a reason – and just admit it, you have liked nearly every improvement and innovation Facebook has released.