The “like” button is perhaps the simplest of the website’s features, but it’s also come to define it. Companies vie for your thumbs up. Articles online contain little blue portals which send your likes back to Facebook. The action of “liking” something is seen to have such power that in 2010, a class action lawsuit was filed against Facebook claiming teenagers should not be able to “like” ads without parental consent.
And today, Facebook begins trials of six new emoji reaction buttons which join the like button at the bottom of posts, multiplying its potential meanings by seven:
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