by Lisa
After lots of speculation, Facebook have rolled out the ability to do more than simply "like" a status / post.
For a long time Users have felt restricted by simply being able to "like" a post - sometimes you want to show support to a friend in a time of need, or agree with a statement on a sensitive subject. The word "like" doesn't always work.
When it was announced a few months ago that Facebook were considering options, lots of people suggested other wording they could use - but they've opted for a range of emoticons. Rather than choose one other word - we've got a choice of 6, represented by faces.
Hovering over "like" brings up the options which represent Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry. So far they've steered away from a clear "disagree" option, which some fear could cause upset or even bullying and harrassment if allowed.
Rather than the caption under the post then say "You and xx others like this", the caption just contains names/a figure which when clicked on shows a break down of who feels what, with a streamlined filter so you can click on an icon at the top to see just the people who felt that emotion.
Personally I'm not sure these icons are all that exciting - it's a novel new feature and an interesting design injection into the news feed, but people already used "like" for "love and "haha" - they didn't really need differentiating between. One that I feel is missing is "sympathise" for when people share bad news - you don't necessarily want to say you're "sad" - you want to say that your thoughts are with your friend. This approach though does allow new emotions to be added as Facebook see fit - although it might be a while before we see a "dislike" if they've opted against it in this big update. It seems they've decided to play it safe and steer away from people being able to post negative feedback - which is very understandable and I'm certainly not one to promote negativity, but I do feel Users will still find there isn't an icon that quite says what they want to say.