Ok, this post is nothing to do with the environment whatsoever. It is simply a look at Facebook and some associated musings I’ve been having lately…

My thoughts in this post are based on some of the oddities that occur whilst using Facebook and its infamous ‘like’ button. The most recent occurrence was when I found a facebook page simply entitled Climate Change. I thought the page was informative and looked good, so I pressed the ‘like’ button. Of course the reply that instantly came back was “The Green Review likes Climate Change”. Bloody slander! I don’t like climate change! It scares the Hell out of me. But now all of The Green Review’s 13 Facebook followers (yes I’m that popular) have seen this message, essentially claiming I’m a big, fat, climate change-liking fraud. This could be the end of me. I think I’ll have to shelve my green blog and move to South America, Switzerland or Bradford.

My next issue with the ‘like’ button is this: On Father’s Day this year, a number of my friends posted moving messages about their departed fathers, and I naturally wanted to show empathy to these friends of mine. However, as my cursor hovered over the ‘like’ button, index finger ready to strike, I thought to myself; how does it look if I ‘like’ this. For example: So-and-so says something like “I really miss my father. A small patch of light in the world has faded since he died and I miss him every day”. Then underneath you have, “Gareth Eynon likes this” No I don’t. How unsympathetic does that look? In respect of this, I think that facebook should add an ‘empathise’ button… Oh sorry, Facebook’s American isn’t… it should have an empathize button, with a zee.

Next, (and rather conversely) I think that sometimes the ‘like’ button just isn’t enough. You know, when someone posts a really cool link that you want all of your friends to see? Well in this case I think there should be ‘love it!’ button, or perhaps a ‘really, really, really likes’ button. Or maybe you could hit the ‘like’ button an accumulative  number of times to show your appreciation for those cream-of-the-crop posts, links, and photos.

Of course there are any number of buttons Facebook could put on, for example: a ‘dislike’ button (as opposed to ‘unlike’); an ‘I think this is stupid’ button; an ‘awesome’ button; or perhaps even an ‘I love this more than my kids’ button. Maybe there could be an ‘insert your own message’ button for those times when the reaction you want to give is just too hard to qualify.

So you can now understand why I will never be the next Mark Zuckerburg. By the way; did you know that the literal translation of Zuckerburg from German means Sugar Mountain? How sweet.

If you like this post, please share it using your ‘I love this, it’s the best thing I’ve ever read in the whole, wide world’ button. Thanks. Back to green issues next week.