The Dislike Button: Why it's Gone and Why the Internet Sucks Now

By Drew Stewart

YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter have all implemented or tested SOME form of dislike button over the years

Sometimes it’s just for comments, sometimes it’s not even called a dislike button but in every case it represents a way to express dissatisfaction with the material presented.

Currently the only platform with a functional dislike button is Reddit with its downvote system. YouTube gutted its dislike button, Twitter is a mess, and the others either never had one, or have tested and removed it.

The algorithm works by promoting content that gets engagement. With a dislike button viewers can hurt the popularity of a post if they don’t like it.

WITHOUT a dislike button though, people still engage with posts they don’t like, they head to the comments section to voice their irritation which inadvertently leads to a higher viewership because the content of the comments isn’t taken into consideration.

Dislikes are gone because there was an overarching idea that it would make the internet a more positive place. (that’s what companies like Google and Meta say)

It makes sense in theory, it assumes that if people see a post they don’t like, they will simply keep scrolling. But as we’ve learned, that’s not at all how people behave.

Now we’ve discovered that posts that make people angry get more engagement which means that they get more and more popular. That leads to people spending more time on social media which means that more money can be made by the companies that run the space

A dislike button would fix most of this, but that isn’t coming anytime soon. SO if you see something you don’t like, think about ignoring it rather than giving it more attention.