Facebook has upgraded the ubiquitous Like button with a host of new emotions. You can now “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad” or “angry” something with cute emojis. You can “wow” a friend’s appalling Tinder screengrab, send them a “sad” for emotional support during a period of anxiety or just “haha” their wack memes in sympathy. But what do the new Facebook reactions really mean? Why is Facebook rolling them out for its users? These are some of the questions that may have come in your mind when you first hovered over the ‘Like’ button in the search for the new reactions emojis. In this article, we try to answer what these reaction buttons really mean. First lets go by the official version. Facebook has come out with a blogpost to explain what the new reactions means for the news feed. In the blogpost, Facebook states that, Basically the new reactions, according to Facebook, are tools to push more relevant content to you, the final user. Facebook confirmed that it will use data gathered when you use the new emojis to alter your News Feed and learn more about what you like. Facebook is constantly trying to figure out what will keep you glued to your News Feed longer. Every like, every share and every click or tap is more data to feed the Facebook algorithms. Facebook knows a lot about you, and it will use the new reactions to know a further lot about you. Basically these reactions will help Facebook cater to its vast advertiser base more easily. The more perfect information it has about you, the more money it can generator from the advertisers by catering to the exact market. Even Facebook agrees that the new reactions are more of a business decision. “We see this as an opportunity for businesses and publishers to better understand how people are responding to their content on Facebook,” explains Sammi Krug, Facebook product manager. Wired has already done an excellent article on how advertisers are loving the new Facebook reactions. Facebook is not trying to make its users happy with the new reactions buttons. Rather it is trying to make its advertisers and marketers happy by providing them a vast and more accurate user base. So dont get too excited with the new Facebook reaction buttons because, its all about money, honey!
