'Like' and the suppression of negative messages

 July 8th, 2010
facebook, ideas
Facebook gives people the option to 'like' things. When you click the 'like' button facebook seems to make your friends more likely to see the same thing. It functions both as an 'I approve of this' button and an 'I think my friends should see this' button. Positive messages like "I got into grad school" get liked while negative ones like "I lost my job" do not. People end up thinking that life is better for their friends than it actually is.
Referenced in: Ethics of Experimentation

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