So your Facebook friend posts about a tragic event in his/her life and you want to show support, but you don’t really like what has happened. Well all those 1.6 billion worldwide Facebook users will be thrilled to know that Facebook has come up with five new Reactions emoji to help you better express your feelings.
The new emojis – “Love,” “Ha Ha,” Wow,” “Sad” and “Angry” – were rolled out today creating quite the buzz on both social and regular media. Along with the well established “like” button, that makes a total of six different emojis users can use to express themselves.
To add one of the new Reactions emoji simply hold down the “like” icon on mobile or hover over it on the desktop which will allow you to see the new Reactions. Then you just tap or click on the one you want to use.
Like any new item, user response has been mixed, mostly because we all have to get used to it first. Some people ❤️ it. Some people ? it and others just seem ?.
I did a quick survey of our office and response was neutral.
“I am kind of sad that my emotions are being boiled down to simple emojis,” said our young intern Brett Wiesenauer.
No worries Brett, there are still plenty of stickers.
“They really do need a dislike button,” said WKTV Managing Editor Mike DeWitt. That is correct, there is no “dislike” button that many have requested. According to Facebook, the social media company wanted to give users options to express their feelings and felt a dislike button would be too restrictive.
“I wish they had a middle finger,” said WKTV’s Victoria Mullen. I can honestly think of all the reasons Victoria would use this and totally get why Facebook did not and probably will never ever offer one.
As for me, I am happy that there is now a “love” emoji as often times there is something that I more than “like” and have to hit the like button and include “Love it” in the comments. I do wish they had an eye roll or “seen that” for those posts that get reposted umpteen times and then six months later someone reposts it again and all you can do is go “ugh.” I suppose the angry emoji would work as I am annoyed but I am not necessarily angry about it.
So what emoji would you have liked to see? Email me at joanne@wktv.org or post it on our Facebook page.
