Here’s why ‘Unlike’ button did not make it to Facebook

Well, almost everyone of us use Facebook today. We post our thoughts, photos and even share other person’s views on our timeline. To appreciate a post, you get a like or a comment.

Hitting the Like button on a post reveals that you like or appreciate the post. A comment can further appreciate the post with your opinion.

However, if there was an Unlike button (or dislike) available, it would cause a lot of negativity, indirectly bringing in unfortunate consequences.

The creator of the 'Like' is an ex-Facebook CTO, Bret Taylor. He explained to Tech Radar why there never was an unlike button, and probably there never will be one, since it is far too complex.

"[The dislike button] came up a lot. In fact even the language of the word like was something we discussed a lot as well. But regarding the dislike button, the main reason is that in the context of the social network, the negativity of that button has a lot of unfortunate consequences," said Taylor.

He went on to state, "The reason we launched the button in the first place was that there were a lot of times that people wanted to acknowledge something someone did, but didn't have anything to say. And a lot of comments were one word like 'cool' or 'wow' so the like button let people did that with a single click. It wasn't really just a sentiment of 'like'."

Taylor said that the unlike feature will not work in the same manner as the like button and could bring in a lot of negative social aspects with it. He said that if you dislike something, you should comment on it rather than just hit the unlike button, because there’s probably a word for what you want to say about the post.

He ends with “I'm not saying the like button isn't flawed would it be even more complex with a negative sentiment like 'dislike'."

Indirectly, with only a Like button, you have no other choice. If you cant say something nice, it’s better not to say anything at all.