From the Front Page Sections, translated…
Due to the callings of millions of Facebook users, the founder of Facebook, Zuckerberg finally agreed, that other than the “Kudos” button, there’s an alternate choice. It’s not an “No Kudos” button, but a button that shows empathy. Reason being, that life doesn’t always go our ways, and there are times when we all feel down; and, when our friends’ walls of postings showed of the tragic stories of the influx of refugees, when the wall showed that someone had lost a loved one, how can you give a “kudo” to that?
The world had been ranting on, for Facebook to include a “dislike” button. And Facebook wouldn’t, because of the considerations of the effect on society.
Based off of Zuckerberg, Facebook is not a place for people to vote, to decide whether or not someone’s opinions are good or bad; and that the “dislike” button would be equivalent to spreading negative energies in the Facebook community, “This, is not the sort of online community that we want set up.”
Naturally, the users’ information had always been how Facebook makes money. By collecting the kudos from the one-hundred fifty billion users, postings, friendship requests, and locations, etc., etc., etc., you can basically predict the intelligence of the users, the preferences, the way the users consumed, which would help Facebook solidify its place in the online social networking realm; and now, with the brand new button, it’d opened up yet, another gold mine of information.
Set aside the business considerations, do we, really, need a brand new button?
Currently the definition of “Kudos” is multiple; in the Chinese world, “Kudos” is almost equivalent to “read”, a lot of the public used this marking, and gave out kudos on all the articles, claiming, “I read that!”, it’s like how you are showing that you’re supporting what someone is saying.
When all the interpersonal relations became estranged, and the interactions all showed on Facebook, the comparisons of all these “kudos” would lead the self-evaluations and self-worth, and the emotions of the users—“how come he gave her a kudo, but not me, we’d taken the photos, in almost the exact angles?” and “What should I post today, so the bosses can know that I’m hardworking?”
After the “Kudos” button was placed on Facebook, this blue thumb icon became the important cultural marking. Studies had shown, that the mainstream of Facebook interactions had caused modern day psychological difficulties, and the postings and the feedbacks are causing modern day people to become even MORE narcissistic, more distant, to feel even more unlucky, thus, lonelier than before.
So, imagine this, what would happen, if there’s an “Empathy” button? Logically the postings that are in need of the world’s attention (I’m tired of this world, I will do something that makes all of you all regret!), but, what if, the postings didn’t have the desired results, the sense of loss is probably way worse than not having any kudos.
What’s more worrisome is, “empathy” IS a virtue that should be weighed more heavily, more impressive than “like” or “dislike”, and, when someone posted a personal tragedy, the person would be letting her/his most vulnerable parts show, and naturally, that part of people should be treated with great care and concerns. And still, do we really need, to SHARE this sort of depth of emotion with our casual acquaintances, and make it into a button?
For instance, my friend posted on FB, that there is a suspicious bump on her body, and that the doctor was doing a biopsy on it, and for now, all she can do is wait. And, when there’s only a “Kudos” button to press, how, do we express our concerns to the person? When there are NO other options, worse must be used.
The best way is to pick up the phones, and feel the other person’s worries, and give out the well wishes; or, in the reply areas, leave a message of encouragement like “I’m praying for you”, “Everything will be all right, I’m sure!” (but whether or not this would be appropriate, is another story).
Zuckerberg once stat4ed, the existence of Facebook is to increase the meaningful connections and communications between people. But, with the new “I feel you” button, it made reduce meaningful interactions even more so. When empathy becomes a “button”, no matter what the button is called, our emotions became devalued.
I hope, that Zuckerberg can understand Chinese soon enough, and be able to read the comments in Chinese, someone can post this suggestion to him to his Facebook page.
And so, because FB had become, the PRIMARY way we “connect” with one another, and, there’s NO doubt, that with the developments of FB, the distance between you and someone else is a hell of a lot closer, but, there’s also that bystander effect, AND the diffusion of responsibility to consider, like in the case from before when a young teenage girl committed suicide by burning charcoal in her own bedroom, and broadcasted it, play-by-play on FB, and all of her Face “friends” started consoling her to put out that god DAMN fire, and yet, NONE of them ever thought about calling up the police, so the cops can trace her internet account to her precise location, AND save her life, so, is Facebook really bringing us closer? And no, there’s this button that allows someone to take back Kudos, or to show dislike? And, seeing how we are all affected by other people’s opinions of us (hey, speak for YOURSELF!!!), chances of this brand new “development” of Facebook is more than likely to BACKFIRE!
