Facebook like: Past, present and future

Abstract

As a social networking website, Facebook has a huge advantage over other sites: the emotional investment of its users. However, such investments are meaningful only if others respond to them. Facebook provides a way to its users for responding to posts by writing comments or by pressing a Like button to express their reactions. Since its activation on February 9, 2009, the Facebook Like button has evolved as an essential part of users’ daily Facebook routines and a popular tool for them to express their social presence. However, the inadequacy of the Like button in expressing the original sentiments of a user towards a post has raised serious discussions among the users. It is an apparent deduction that Facebook Like disappoints at addressing the wide spectrum of emotions that an online human communication entails. It does not let the post creator ascertain that the sentiment behind his post has been perceived in its true essence. Even after the collaboration with emotions, the Like button still has a wide range of issues that needs to be addressed. The paper considers these pros and cons associated with the current Facebook Like button. The paper also provides novel technique to improve the efficiency of the Like feature by associating it with an intelligent engine for generating recommendations to the users. This, in turn, shall improve the user-posted content on Facebook.