Studies have shown that too much Facebook is bad for your mental health, and spending hours every day scrolling through other people’s (exaggerated) accomplishments and (supposedly) happy relationships can lead to what psychologists call a “comparison hangover.” Which is fine, but what to do with all that misplaced negativity once you’ve got it? CNBC has the answer: According to Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, the company is now actively working on the “dislike” button the Negative Nancys and Buzzkill Barrys of the world have been clamoring for.
Zuckerberg’s plan to make the internet an even more negative place was revealed at a recent Q&A, where he said he’s been hesitant to add the feature because “we don’t want to turn Facebook into a forum where people are voting up or down on people’s posts.” However, he says, in the spirit of empathy, the company is working on the “dislike” button, which has been “surprisingly complicated” to create. Zuckerberg does have a point about the empathy thing: Facebook has become a virtual town ledger where people announce milestones in their lives, and it does feel wrong, for example, to click the “like” button on a post about someone losing their job or having to put a pet to sleep. But for someone whose company employs legions of contractors devoted to tracking down and removing the most heinous, anti-social content possible, assuming that people will only click “dislike” on sad posts seems awfully naive.
There’s no set date on when Facebook will launch the Satanic inversion of its “like” button, but Zuckerberg says the company is “very close to shipping a test of it.” You can take a few extra seconds to type out your displeasure with this time frame in the comments.