Early reactions to Facebook Reactions

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By Scott Swanson

For ages, the denizens of Facebook have demanded a dislike button. And today, Facebook complied . . . kind of.

Facebook Reactions, which is now available to all Facebook users, is being billed as an extension of the like button, to give you more ways to share your reaction to a post in a quick and easy way. It’s a small thing, but it’s also a major change for Facebook — after all, the like is Facebook’s most iconic element. Reactions are sure to generate lots of feedback over the next few weeks, ranging from positive to  . . . well, “sad” and “angry.” Here are few of the earliest reviews.

A little morbid, but a fair point:

Pretty much:


Well I don’t know if we’d go that far:

Yeah, we knew this reaction was coming:

A couple months is probably overly optimistic:

BLASPHEMY:

Hey, at least some people are happy!

So, how do you use Reactions?

If you’re on a laptop or desktop browser, you can simply hover over the like button. A bar of reactions will come up that you can choose from, including the traditional “like” plus “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad,” and “angry.”

If you’re on mobile, it’s a bit trickier. Hold down the like button on a post, and the same six options will come up. Be careful though – it takes some getting used to, and it’s easy to accidentally choose the wrong icon.

What’s your initial reaction to Reactions? Are you more of a wow, more of an angry, or are you all love?