Should We Have Dislike Buttons? (Jonathan Castella's Blog Post #8)


 The concept of “liking” a post on social media is something that exists across the majority of social media platforms. Whether it be a like, a thumbs up, a heart, or an upvote, this concept is almost always present. But does it really designate a post's success? To some extent it feels as if it is unquestionably an indicator of at least some level of interest in a post. However, this is just a surface-level indicator; the number of likes on a post is only part of a story. What is the ratio of people who saw a post and decided to like it? If this is a high ratio, it is a better indicator that the post can be considered successful. If the post has a low ratio, meaning many more views than likes, then this may not be such a great indicator. Both view count and number of likes help to tell the full story. In addition, the concept of a dislike button may offer further insight into a post's success. Platforms like Reddit do have this function, the downvote button. YouTube also has a dislike button, although as of November 2021 the number of dislikes is no longer made public. This makes the dislike button on YouTube somewhat worthless, as it gives no indication to a viewer of how unfavorable a video may be. YouTube users have the ability to view their dislikes; this information is only restricted publicly on YouTube itself. Although, using third-party analytic tools, anyone can view a video's dislikes. Having dislikes on social media platforms can be incredibly helpful in determining the true success of a post. However, there are still a number of issues regarding this. On an interpersonal level, dislikes allow for much more direct targeted attacks and bullying. It could cause people not to want to post on platforms at all due to a fear of dislikes. This could cause harm in the minds of young users; having a number tied to the amount of people who “like” you already is problematic enough. Knowing exactly who and how many people actively do not like you cannot be healthy for a developing mind. Having dislikes on a social media platform may be a great way to understand a post's true success. However, this comes with a high cost that does not make it a viable option.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blogging through Social Platforms- Lizzy's First Blog Post

 There are many forms of blogging especially in today's social media world. What started as the world wide web in 1991 turned into many other social media pages to be created. If we truly think about it, all of these social media platforms are different ways of blogging. X  (Twitter) is short blog posts, Facebook is daily updates blogging, Instagram is picture blogging and Zoom is video blogging. That is basically all that these social medias are about. Sharing news, updates in our lives or telling the world news. This world of social media has completely turned our online resources around. The problem is we cannot believe everything we read on the internet, especially with social media platforms. There are many outside sources or fake news that can spread very fast. Fact checking is a new thing now on Facebook. It says that this page was fact checked. But was it really? Social media is widely becoming a major tool in our lives. This does not mean it should consume us. In a wo...
Read more

"Anonymous Member" (Lizzy Sblendorio Post #5)

Image
  The Anonymous Member on the social media app, Facebook, has become a new feature that many like but others do not. With this feature, members of Facebook can comment or post into a group anything under 'anonymous member'. Is this privacy setting too much or is it a good thing. One thing to remember is to never believe everything you read on the internet. What is a puzzle in itself is whether or not that person with a cute profile is actually the real person. What I mean by that is anyone can create a profile on Facebook, how do you know that all of their information is correct? You simply do not. Privacy has become a little too common in my opinion. There are not enough steps to verify your real information. That is why I do not like the anonymous feature on Facebook. What if someone says something hurtful or a threat and they are listed as a anonymous member? Yeah it can trace back to their normal profile but what if that person does not exist. Being invisible is all over so...
Read more

Users of the World, Unite! Review (Zoe Manalo Post #3)

  Users of the World, Unite! What Kaplan & Haenlein Teach Us About Social Media Zoe Manalo (Post #3) For this week I wanted to focus on one of the readings. When we think of social media today, it may feel like it's been around for awhile. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and the list goes on. But back in 2010, Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein published an articled titled Users of the World, Unite! that helped define what social media is and why it matters. Now it's 2025 and their article still shapes how we think about online platforms.  Kaplan and Haenlein described social media as a group of Interned based applications built on the Web 2.0., where users create and share information. They don't just consume what they come across. This shift from doom scrolling, or passive to active participation is what makes social media a tool. Kaplan and Haenlein broke social media into six categories: collaborative projects, blogs and microblog, content communities, social network...
Read more