This question is deceptively simple for something like Facebook Reactions. “ What is the problem to which this technology is the solution?”
For the purposes of framing this much-needed skepticism, we here at the Shipwreck, have often deployed Neil Postman’s “Six Questions to Ask of New Technology” (to which we generally add two more questions) – and these questions are as useful for thinking about the roll out of Reactions as they are for thinking about something like delivery drones. Yes, Facebook’s Reactions may allow the platform’s users to do new things – but it does not seem to be a significant logical leap to suggest that Facebook probably would not have implemented these changes unless the company felt that it had something to gain from these changes. In truth, when a tech company (or any company, really) unveils an overhaul it’s advisable to always consider the change with some skepticism. Certainly, there will be some users who quibble and criticize the various Reactions (this is the Internet), but Facebook can confidently offer the retort “you wanted more options than just the “like” button, we gave them to you.”Īnd yet, despite the fact that it seems that Facebook was responding to something many of its users actually wanted, it is still worth approaching this change with a certain degree of skepticism. And with the unveiling of Reactions, it seems that Facebook can argue that it is giving its users what they want. In addition to the “like” button, Facebook users can now respond to posts with five additional reactions, these include: “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad,” and “angry.” While tech companies have a tendency of pushing changes that fit their own agenda onto users (did you really want that last Terms of Service change?) there are also some instances in which it seems that these same companies are genuinely trying to respond to a desire on the part of their user base. And now, after quite a lot of experimenting, Facebook has decided to give its users a more robust set of options. One could argue that the history of Facebook’s “like” button is inextricably bound up with the history of people saying that the “like” button was not enough. Is there not something profoundly improper about replying to your friend’s post about things going distinctly badly for them by hitting a “like” or “favorite” button?
Or, to put it slightly differently, if one of the main ways that a social media platform gives you to respond to people’s postings is to “like” those things than you may feel at a bit of a loss. After all, how does one convey the thousands of slight shifts in tone, posture, and facial expression that one is not even conscious of making? Language is itself an often unsatisfactory communication tool, and when language is filtered through things like social media meaning can become even more strained.Īll of which is to say: the medium we use to communicate something generally places certain limitations on what we can effectively communicate. Indeed, it should not be overly difficult to think of examples in your own media usage that have revealed the many ways in which communication technologies continually fall short of fully conveying the desired message. Prepare yourself for a not particularly shocking observation: when it comes to interpersonal communication, there are certain types of information that are not conveyed particularly well by information technology. Formerly, female given names were written in katakana.Facebook Reactions Are No Laughing Matter Names of Japanese companies, as well as certain Japanese language words, are also sometimes written in katakana rather than the other systems. It is also occasionally used colloquially in some words for emphasis.
Unlike the hiragana system, used for Japanese language words that kanji does not cover, the katakana syllabary is used primarily for transcription of foreign language words into Japanese and the writing of loan words (collectively gairaigo), as well as to represent onomatopoeias, technical and scientific terms, and the names of plants, animals, and minerals. It is the eighteenth syllable in the gojūon order its position is タ 行ウ 段 ( ta-gyō u-dan, “ row ta, section u ” ). Simplified in the Heian period from the man'yōgana kanji 州 or 川.
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