Facebook and the Daunting Like Button

I read an interesting article about Facebook and the use of the like button. This article is titled "I Liked Everything I Saw on Facebook for Two Days. Here's What It Did to Me." This article was about the writer deciding to do an experiment in which he liked everything that showed up on his news feed for 48 hours, whether he actually liked the post or not he liked everything on his news feed. The article goes on to say that Facebook uses an algorithm in what you will see next on your news feed. It takes the likes and the page views of others to calculate which statuses you will see most of. It touches on business trying to advertise their products with filling your feed if you like their company. It mentions the ability to manipulate how the person posting the status reacts to how many likes he/she gets from their post. Most of us feel a sense of power and popularity the more likes we get on a status. It can boost anyones self esteem and motivates us to post more and more to get more likes on our page. An even more interesting side of social media is the ads and relateds pages (If you like Farmville, you will get ads and more posts about Farmville). Soon enough your page gets filled with ads, political garbage and the celebrity life. Articles will fill your feed instead of your friends posts. I found this to be a relating topic to all Facebook users in today's society. Why do we press the Like Button and what does it do for the person posting the status? I think every user has posts they want everyone to like and when the majority of people like it.. We get a sense of pride and a boost of confidence, but what is it about social media that pumps everybody up? When did our society start caring more about likes on Facebook than actually having good debates and conversations with friends in person? Ads will forever be apart of our lives and all over social media, but I encourage you Facebook addicts to stop liking things for the sake of pressing a button, but rather show your interest towards others with a more deeper personal connection.



http://www.wired.com/2014/08/i-liked-everything-i-saw-on-facebook-for-two-days-heres-what-it-did-to-me/