Facebook "likes" are really annoying!

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It never ceases to bug me that people on Facebook use "like" in a non-literal fashion, so much so that I've made fun of the practice on my blog: https://robertlovespi.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/like-do-you-like-like-or-do-you-just-like-like/

Seriously, though, I see it all the time: someone posts something along the lines of, "My grandma just died," and seven people will have clicked "like" before I even see it. Why would someone click "like" on a status-message of that type? You LIKE it that your friend's grandmother died?

Does this irritate others here at WrongPlanet? Do you refuse to use "like" for anything other than its literal meaning, as I do?

[MOVED from GAD to Random]

XFG, thanks for the move. I'm still getting used to the way this site is organized.

RLP

I guess it is a little irritating/confusing...I know when I see posts like that I hesitate to 'like' it because it bothers me that i don't literally like the thing the post says, but I know its more serves the function to just show the person they have been heard at least in most peoples mind. Nonetheless I prefer only to 'like' posts/statuses that I actually like...uhh it even gets kind of tricky with articles that I feel talk about something important but that something is negative like I don't want to 'like' an article with a title like 'Man gets 20 years for Pot Brownie' because that sucks...but if the article goes on to adress the issue of minimum mandatory sentences for drug offences then I want to click like since I think articles get more views the more likes they get but it still bothers me in my mind it looks like I am saying I like that people can get 20 years in prison over pot. So I can kinda understand the irritation with that feature.

I'm not on Facebook (or Twitter, Pinterest etc) because I don't 'like' anything about it. The whole concept of Facebook is annoying, as is Mark Zuckerberg.

I always wanted a "hate" button to balance things out, I get tired of this feelgood spin that Facebook puts on everything.

Actually I never noticed the problems with the "like" button until I read this. You have a point. I guess the Facebook software can't tell the difference between happy and sad messages. Personally I wouldn't click the button unless I really liked the thing it was attached to. I think it's largely there to provide a way of being polite and paying lip-service to whoever has posted the message without having to go to the trouble of thinking of something appropriate to say. I get emails suggesting I go and "like" this or that, and often when I look, I can't make head or tail of what's supposed to be so likeable about whatever it is, so I often do nothing.

Sometimes there are political messages that uncover stuff such as what the establishment did to Bradley Manning, I might have accidentally "liked" on or two of those, and I'm thankful if everybody took it as meaning "I like that you brought this into the open. More power to your elbow."

I share your pedantic nature. I notice that people say things like "I could care less" when they mean that they don't care, so they actually couldn't care less - the mistake seems too common for it to be a random typo. Weird or what?

Facebook in general can be annoying....

The annoyance of Facebook and Twitter is one of a few reasons why I don't use them anymore.