Facebook ‘Sympathize’ Button Could Become A Reality

Could a sympathize button be making its way to Facebook? While it may not be right away, Facebook has said that they are toying with the idea.

We’ve all had those moments: a friend or loved one expresses sadness at a recent family member passing, or just overall upset because of a bad experience during the day or week, and we want to show that we care, but other than leaving a comment, there are no other options other than “liking” their status or photo. Is hitting the “like” button all that appropriate in these situations? Some say yes, others think the concept of “liking” something that is upsetting to someone isn’t a very good idea.

According to the Huffington Post, one Facebook engineer said Thursday that the social network has informally experimented with an alternative to the “like” button. This new button would appropriately be called the “sympathize” button. Another Facebook engineer, Dan Muriello, stated that the “sympathize” button would accompany gloomier status updates.

Facebook recently rolled out an update that allows users to select how they are feeling when posting a status. If the “sympathize” button was officially introduced to Facebook, the idea, which was brought up at a recent hackathon, would basically be that the “like” button would become the “sympathize” button when a negative feeling is selected to go with a status update.

“If someone selected a negative emotion like ‘sad’ or ‘depressed’ from Facebook’s fixed list of feelings, the ‘like’ button would be relabeled ‘sympathize.'”

According to Business Insider, Muriello said that while the “sympathize” button was “well-received by fellow Facebookers” but continued on to say that the button wouldn’t be making its way to Facebook users any time soon.

What do you think about the idea of a “sympathize” button? Would you make good use of it or are you one of those that really doesn’t care either way?

[Image via Shutterstock/Sarawut Aiemsinsuk]