A look inside how the company revamped the impact of the like button by creating reactions on Facebook.

You would think the site would process a like, love, hate or wow reaction in different ways. As it turns out, all reactions on Facebook are currently being measured equally, with the exception of the like button. To further explain, Facebook has found that when people simply like a post it does not indicate the same intensity as the Facebook reactions. Selecting a reaction is a stronger indicator that the user would like to see a similar post again. Reactions on Facebook can be categorized as love, haha, sad, wow, yay or angry. It is difficult to understand why Facebook is treating an angry reaction the same as a love reaction. They certainly do not indicate the same emotion or idea…right?

Ability for reactions on Facebook

When Facebook builds each user’s news feed, they put more weight on displaying posts that users react to than what they like. So, even if you like a post and hate another post, hating a post gives Facebook a stronger indicator to include similar posts in your feed. It seems obvious that Facebook updated their algorithm when implementing reactions. What is odd is how they weigh the reactions evenly.

This update will most likely cause users to think twice before sharing reactions on Facebook. The update also raises many questions about whether these adjustments could cause waves within advertising and other media platforms. There have been concerns from privacy advocates that this new update could gather data for other media sources, like many other sites.

What reactions on Facebook mean for the future

Whether or not this update is a path to gathering users’ personal data is up for debate. It does seem like the update and use of reactions on Facebook has immense potential. Adjusting the algorithm so that the reactions were weighted differently creates the ability to submit a positive, negative or angry reaction about posts. This would allow users to essentially tailor their own news feeds. The idea of creating a feed in correlation with what you want is progressive and exciting.

How Facebook handles this update and whether or not other sites try and jump on this wagon remains unseen, but one fact is evident. No matter how you feel about this update, your actions on the internet and social network have an indisputable impact on your news feed. Reactions on Facebook are no exception to this rule. Sometimes the best way to show Facebook you don’t like something is to ignore it.

Learn more at http://globaldatinginsights.com/2017/02/28/facebook-to-change-news-feed-algorithm-ranking-reactions-over-likes/