Facebook Goes Beyond the Like

The next time you login to Facebook, you’ll notice there are more “like” options than just a simple thumbs-up ‘Like’ button. The social media juggernaut is rolling out new ways for you to react to posts.

While none of these new status items reflects the ‘Dislike’ button that people have been asking for, the new reactions allow people to more appropriately respond. In addition to the infamous like option, there are five new buttons for you to consider using.

The love emotion

This allows you to show that a post is worthy of more than a simple like. It might be a picture of your spouse, an update about something cute your grandchildren did, or even the announcement that your favorite band is releasing a new album.

The “haha’

For the posts that make you laugh. It can be anything from cute cats dancing to a belly chuckle that your best friend shares. This saves you the time of having to like and commenting with a lol, as it combines the best of both in a single selection.

The ‘wow’ emotion

This is when something is surprising. It can be a good surprise or a bad surprise, but it is something that you truly find shocking. You can use this when someone unexpectedly gets married, announces they bought a brand new car, or even when they post that they were ranked #1 in customer service.

The ‘sad’ emotion

Some posts are just plain sad and make you want to cry. When you learn a person has died, is under the weather, or in a case where someone is blue, you can show your support for them in an appropriate fashion. I was always uncomfortable clicking like on a sad post to show support. I didn’t really like what was being discussed so this emoji is pretty useful.

The “angry emotion

Finally, when your “friend” that you have never met in person, decides to go off the wall with his random political rants that you’ve heard for the 10^th time, you can now click the ‘angry’ option. This lets the individual know you don’t agree with what they have to say. This also works for offensive posts that make you raise an eyebrow. I’d say it’s also useful for those posts where your friend says they or a family member has cancer. Cancer makes me sad and angry so I’d have to choose between the two or make separate “likes.”

I like Facebook because they only had the like; it kept things simple and somewhat “nice.” This give people more options but I’m afraid that many of these emojis will be used in a negative way.

Love them or hate them, these new emotions are here. It’s a good idea to learn how to use them and start to work them into your Facebook responses so that people know how you feel about their posts.