Why YouTube Should Ditch The Dislike Feature
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“I’ll be explaining why I think YouTube should remove the dislike feature, how it could make a difference, and why it serves no real purpose to the general public.”
Basic Principles, Broken System
I think we all get the general idea behind the thumbs up, and thumbs down feature on YouTube, but it’s a broken system. How many times have you viewed a fantastic video just to witness a seemingly random small number of dislikes? You begin to question just what caused these few individuals to dislike the video in the first place. After thinking about it for a few minutes, you conclude that there is no real reason.
The dislike button is there, easy to access, anyone can click it, and people do it just for the heck of it — which is dead on in a lot of cases. We all know that some people will dislike, down-vote, or disapprove anything and everything just for the sake of stirring the pot. We like to call them trolls and for a good reason, but they usually only do this because they can hide behind the anonymous internet wall.
I guarantee if they used their personal account with their real name and real profile photo — they would not act out very much or at all. However — some trolls don’t care if you know who they are, but that just shows everyone how they behave in the real world. That’s another story for another day!
Removing The Dislike Button
Only having a “Like” option for posts was something that Facebook had right all along. By removing the negative stigma of disliking something you’ve not only stopped silly online wars from starting, but you’ve kept the trolls at bay. If you like something then hit the “Like” button, but if you didn’t then don’t. It’s a simple concept that YouTube could greatly benefit from, and is something I think should be implemented immediately! If people genuinely don’t enjoy a video for some reason, it will surely be represented by the number of total likes it may or may not receive in general.
What purpose does the dislike feature serve anyways? Let’s say you see a video that has 64K likes and 22 dislikes. The most likely answer to those odd number of dislikes — it’s either 22 separate trolls who are being jerks, two genuine people along with 20 trolls, or one person trolling with 22 different accounts. You see what I’m saying? It serves no real purpose — except for the fact that you now have a built-in personal troll counter for everyone to see. Thanks, I guess?
The Wrap-Up
We don’t need a dislike option mucking up the YouTube experience! Just by keeping the “Like” button it will still allow us to gauge how well the public perceives a video. Same goes for negative perception — if a video has a large number of views with a low number of likes, it’s evident that people don’t like it. This simple change would make the whole experience much better for anyone who uses YouTube.
For example, “The Lion King — Hakuna Matata” has over 100 million views, 237K likes, with 24K dislikes. This is such a Disney classic, and everyone I’ve ever talked to loves this song — why are there 24K dislikes? What the heck is going on here, and do that many people who viewed the video actually dislike it? You really have to wonder how many of those dislikes are legit and how many are trolling for the sake of trolling. The dislike feature is just a pointless stat that means absolutely nothing to anyone. Go ahead — check out some of your favorite songs, movies, or videos on YouTube and find out how many oddly placed dislikes it has. Weird, right?
