A Book of Faces
Within the realm of social media, its often hard to express one’s emotions to the fullest extent. Thankfully, in 2016, Facebook developed a whole new world of understanding, Facebook Reactions. Facebook Reactions allows for those communicative barriers to finally be broken. Now, people have the capability to not only “like” a post, but also express specific reactions towards something such as “happiness” or “anger.” This innovative addition to Facebook’s original formula allows for wider ranges of expression to be made. Although Facebook is making strides towards expimplifying more opportunities to be more considerate, there still are problems that have to examined.
In this day and age, people tend to be quite sensitive. Therefore, being able to see someone’s true reaction to your Facebook post might not mean it’s always authentic, and that’s not always appreciated. For example, if someone were to post that they were leaving a sports team, and a Facebook Reaction was a sad face, some might take that the wrong way, due to lack of excitement and support. Additionally, Facebook tends to be one of the social media platforms
that are more open when it comes to political issues. Facebook Reactions might leave you in the predicament of deciding whether it is acceptable to leave a reaction on certain posts, or if it’s better to leave it alone all together. Often times Facebook Reactions may even feel inappropriate to use. In “Facebook Reactions are here, and they’re worse than we feared,” Pete Pachal says that, “If you really care about an issue, leaving a comment – even a short one – feels far more appropriate.” This article also suggests that using a cartoon emoji to express one’s feelings towards a serious issue might cause more problems than its worth.
The technological usage of these applications are amazingly convenient for a regular Facebook user, however, due to the fact that Facebook maintains wide ranges of older aged users who may be less technologically advanced than the average social media consumer, this advancement deems a bit confusing for those in the 40+ category. Generally, these people tend to find using new Facebook advancements difficult. When running tests on Facebook’s new addition in, “Study: No One Uses Facebook Reactions,” Claudia da Costa found that people were more prevalent to use the like button rather than the Facebook Reaction buttons, because it is something that they are more accustomed to, and in this day and age unfamiliar change is often avoided because people aren’t willing to step out of their comfort zone.
Overall, this addition to Facebook is an obvious step in the right direction for the platform. As Facebook is known to be one of the oldest social media platforms that is still relevant in today’s society, it is important that it innovates these new technologies in order to maintain that status against its competitors. Due to the fact that controversy is a given in the world of social media, I believe that this innovation to Facebook’s conventional makeup is the
most lucrative way to match its contemporary competitors. Despite the fact that these innovations cause controversy with regards to the overall effects of these reactions, it is
important that Facebook continues to utilize these new technologies to remain relevant while also being one of the few platforms that is adaptable for wide ranges of consumers.
References
Costa, C. D. (2016, July 07). Study: No One Uses Facebook Reactions. Retrieved from https://contently.com/2016/05/05/study-no-one-uses-facebook-reactions-2/
Pachal, P., & Pachal, P. (2015, October 09). Facebook Reactions are here, and they’re worse than we feared. Retrieved from https://mashable.com/2015/10/09/facebook-reactions-problems/#ifTfmCzI2Eqk