![]() Encourages groupthink, discourages independent thought ![]() However, the buttons are used to promote the silly and witty comments, which might amuse people, but it doesn’t challenge them to think about the topics and issues at hand. And the ‘thumbs down’ button would be more useful if it was used to hide comments that don’t add to the discussion. The ‘thumbs up’ button would be more useful if it was used to call-out important comments that add to the discussion. This not only creates a war of words between people, but it can also create a ‘thumbs up’ war that causes users to abuse the ‘thumbs up/thumbs down’ button. It becomes personal and more about one’s ego than about the topic of discussion at hand. If one person says something another person doesn’t like, a heated argument could start, where insults get thrown back and forth. Users also have a tendency to express how they feel about other users. It also includes the intellect, which is rarely seen in comments today. Human thinking isn’t limited to just feelings and emotions. This causes users to constantly judge what they see and read, instead of fully understanding it. This format causes users to make simple-minded, emotional comments, where users are quick to express their love or hate. It has put more importance on voting than discussing.Ĭomments have become nothing more than a place for people to vent their emotions. You are given two choices, ‘like’ or ‘dislike’. Instead of reading insightful and original thoughts that teach something new, users read useless comments from people trying to score ‘thumbs up’ points. It distracts users from discussing the real topics and issues at hand. This game and obsession for the most ‘likes’ degrades the comment quality of a website. The ‘thumbs up/like’ button has not just turned YouTube comments into a mindless game, but it has created an endless obsession for ‘thumbs up’ votes. Some will crack a joke about the number of people who disliked a video that most people liked. Some will outright ask for a ‘thumbs up’ to acknowledge assent. Some users will even copy and paste a successful comment on one video to another just to increase their ‘thumbs up’ count. Many of them are senseless, vulgar and add little value to the content. If you look at the comments for YouTube videos, you’ll find that most of them are 3-8 word, one liners that sound like they came out of a bad sitcom. The quintessential example of this is on YouTube. This voting system has created the ‘thumbs up’ game, where people see who can make the wittiest comment to gain the highest ‘thumbs up’ count. This game might seem innocent and fun, but it has reduced critical thought and discussion to almost nil. If they give you a thumbs down, it means they don’t like what you said. If someone gives your comment a thumbs up, it means they like what you said. ![]() They’re most notably found on Facebook, YouTube and other social news sites. The ‘thumbs up/like’ button is the voting system used to rate user comments on social websites. This limited view has changed the mentality and behavior of users, and the ‘thumbs up/like’ button is to blame. ![]() Today, the comments on most social websites limit people to two perspectives: ‘like’ or ‘dislike’. It was a way to learn more about a topic by listening to the different perspectives others had. Have you ever read the comments left at the end of an article or video? Comments used to offer useful, supplementary information that you couldn’t get from the content itself.
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