As if the social network wasn’t making us anti-social enough, the bright minds behind it thought that it would be better if we used stickers instead of words in comments.
A staple in Facebook’s Messenger, stickers are now part of the social network’s main app, as well. Soon enough, these emoji-like things will be available on the desktop version of the website, undoubtedly. I’ve grown tired of people who can barely spell (both in English and Romanian, which is my mother tongue), but apparently there’s great news ahead for the illiterate ones. Words are no longer necessary. Why convey a message using vowels and consonants, when you can easily send a sticker that has been used by millions of other brain-dead people? This is Idiocracy, alright!
Software engineer Bob Baldwin announced the addition of stickers to comments in a blog post:
“Stickers have been a delightful way to communicate in messages, and I’m happy to announce that we’re bringing them to comments across Facebook. Just tap the smiley face icon in the bottom-right of any comment field to pick a sticker to send. It’ll be available to all posts from people, in groups and on events now. I think stickers will allow people to reply to a variety of posts in a more fun way than words alone. You can now easily show your excitement for a post with good news, cheer up a friend who’s feeling down and express a variety of more nuanced reactions.
Stickers in comments was started as a hackathon project in New York with me and (engineering manager Kwame Thomison), where we built the prototype for Web in a single night. When we turned it on for employees soon after, they loved it. We later built it for mobile web at a hackathon in California, and the iOS and Android versions soon after. Thanks to everyone who helped build this, including Kwame Thomison, Yu Chen, Mike Rumble, Anthony Chan, Michael McDuffee, Vihang Mehta, Mark Peng, Joshua Clark and others. Special thanks to Chris Cox, Chuanxin Hu and Sammi Krug for supporting this project.
Comments has been one of my favorite parts of Facebook to hack on. This was my third hackathon project to add richer content to comments: first was emoji (May 2013), then photos (June 2013) and now stickers. Stickers in comments will roll out worldwide over the next day or so. Enjoy!”
I’ll leave you with the following thought-provoking video I’ve stumbled upon a few days ago:
Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Facebook local awareness tool that improves targeting for businesses, and Facebook’s Oculus Rift bug bounty program.
