Nate Update

Shortly after people figured out how to make fan pages on facebook, there was a movement for a Thumbs Down button or a “dislike” button. Today, in Google’s big announcement, I picked out that they have implemented this feature in Google Buzz. Quite a few blogs do, too. It seems that social media has, at times, become a bitching board. Let me explain…

For my company, I monitor a lot (a LOT) of tweets and facebook posts in any given week, and let me tell you – there’s a gang of people on social sites that do nothing but complain. Traffic, lunch, airlines, TV, music, and of course, politics are common areas where seemingly, no one is ever happy. Don’t believe me? Spend some time on Yelp.com searching for your favorite restaurants.

Personally, I dislike the idea of a dislike button. As I said earlier, social sites are already littered with negativity – why encourage it, Google & Co.?

I’ve said this before to some friends and they all agreed. What do you think? Hypothetical situation: you and a date go out for a great meal or a movie. If the meal or movie is fantastic, you cowboys and cowgirls don’t have a tendency to reach in your holster for the ol’ iPhone and dial up Yelp, Twitter, or the company facebook fan page quite as quickly as you would if the meal sucked. Am I right?

Let me make something clear – I’m not for censoring the web, or covering up the truth when someone reaches out to a social site as a means to fixing a given problem. Actually, I’m in favor of connecting with companies by whatever means they provide, be it facebook fan pages, twitter or a blog. Hey, let’s hold businesses responsible if their cause or company makes mistakes. I just don’t know if we should be loading the gun and aiming it, too.