What if Facebook never implements a dislike button? This feature has been requested for a very, very long time by users. They want a way to express scorn and contempt, a way to dislike what their friends are doing on Facebook, and it is understandable. 

But Facebook is smarter than that.

They want the Like button to become the approval stamp of the digital world. Use it to say you liked something, to say that you recommend this movie or book or to say that you are happy Johnny’s getting married. 

Recently, Facebook implemented a Like button as a default way to reply on the Messenger app. You receive a message and on Messenger, you can acknowledge the reading of the message by pushing the default Like button that appears where the Send button is, when you haven’t inputted any text. 

To conclude a conversation, it’s better to “like” rather than to say ok, or not reply or worse, hesitate infinitely between the two. 

Now, the Like button is positively associated with Facebook, and they want to condition us to think that liking things and Facebook are the same. If they unveil a dislike button, the strength of this conditioning would be dramatically diminished. 

We could go to Facebook and express our anger or hate, and thus Facebook will be associated with anger or hate. They don’t want that, and funnily enough, I don’t think you want that. 

Think about it, and tell me what you think (on Twitter or something).