Twitter recently announced that they are rethinking everything, including one of their most recognizable features, the “like” button.
Twitter is one of the most used social media platforms in the world. There are currently about 326 million Twitter users globally to date and is constantly growing every.
In this day and age, everyone keeps track of how many people like their post on social media. Founder, Jack Dorsey explained that he wanted to create a “healthy conversation” through the social media platform.
“This is a huge step for all of social media once everyone sees what Twitter is doing then more will follow,” sophomore biology and pre-med major Brian Hood said.
When the news spread, reactions were mixed. Users complained saying that they used the feature for tagging comments and stories for later reading. Others argued that this would not fix the problem this would only worsen it.
Twitter has been trying to give themselves a better image by getting rid of fake accounts and banning high profile users for hate speeches. Twitter has recently been criticized for failing to remove the accounts of Cesar Sayoc, the man accused of sending pipe-bombs to several public officials and CNN.
Taking away the “like” button makes it less publicly known who supports questionable tweets.
The like button has taken on various forms over the years. Starting off in the shape of a star and then turning into a heart in 2015.
“Hundreds of millions of people use the like button everyday, now everyone is gonna be stuck with the retweet button that causes too much chaos on my feed,” senior business management major stated Nick Waligurski said.
Every social media goes through some type of change throughout their existence but Twitter is removing rather than adding features like other social media platforms.
Twitter give people power, even our president uses Twitter. Without the like button it will be very hard to keep track of those you are influencing.
Trisha Billig, a sophomore pre-law, criminal justice major, said, “Twitter is one of the best ways to connect with people and by taking away the like button it makes it even harder to connect with others.”
Many people are not excited about the news. Many see it as attempting to fix a non-issue while ignoring bigger issue.
“The like button should not be touched we need to get rid of the many people using Twitter to throw around negativity,” Mary Gatta, a freshman biology major. said.
Twitter is a social media platform that gives people the power to talk about things people feel passionate about. The like button is a essential part of the platform and by taking it away will change the platform completely.
