Facebook Considers the ‘Sympathize’ Button for Your Whiny Friends That Need Support

Habitual complainers rejoice, Facebook may soon implement a "sympathize" button so that other users can send their virtual condolences. If you're like me, you probably loathe the idea of encouraging self-pity posts, and while a sympathize button will certainly lead to more of those, there are other scenarios where it makes sense to have such a feature.

Posting about the passing of a friend or family member comes immediately to mind, or being laid off from work, breaking up with a significant other, getting injured just before the championship game, and so forth. These are all situations in which a sympathize button would be more appropriate than mashing "Like."


According to The Huffington Post, a Facebook engineer made a sympathize button during a Facebook hackathon event not long ago. As implemented, it would replace the Like button when a user selects a negative emotion such as sad or depressed.

This doesn't guarantee that it will end up a Facebook feature, but for what it's worth, Facebook users who've had a chance to test it say they like having a sympathize button.

Now, if only Facebook would add a Dislike button, especially since Bitstrips are all the rage these days, we'd be all set.