What a great invention, some could say. Saves time and energy and effort. What it does not do is express that you really care. Oh, wait, do you really care?
It's like going for speed dating; do you really care about the others or is it enough that it gives you a rapid joy to express your emotions instantly? Okay, I get it. Clicking on "Like" is a great way of showing your friends on Facebook that you care; that's certainly one way to put it.
But since likes are usually not followed by real conversations, I believe it is one of the most dangerous anti-social accelerators to date which humans have become accustomed to. It is worse than a single tweet, unless they invent a Re-like a like button, which would at least initiate a dialogue rather than a stamped monologue. Imagine the millions of Ping-Pong signage exchanges in cyber space of "like" emotion signs all being done to pretend we care.
Love you, love you more, love you even more, and oops! You try to comment on a like proposing to meet up. Watch what happens: You will receive a like hit on your great initiative to actually see the person and the dialogue will end. Bittersweet, right? Bitter since you won't meet, but sweet since he/she appreciated your effort and probably even considered it for one second, that was when you received your like hit on your proposal.
So what can we do about it? Shall we do anything about it? Or shall we just let Facebook become a monologue platform for cyber exhibitionism, a sharing and exchange platform for images, drawings, badges, and symbols; a contextualized emotion highway of fast-spaced confirmations of verbally unarticulated empathy. WHY are we doing it? -- and I am hoping I am not being too explicit as to trigger a so-called mutual knowledge, killing your preconceived idea that the "hit Like button easy care service" has been only an innuendo between clickers and receivers only without mass recognition of its antisocial consequences.
At the end of the day, clicking only on Like in order to save time & effort will not do one thing to save your real friendships.
If you agree with all the above, it can make you do two things. Or actually, three. You will smile at its triviality and think of your friends for a moment. Then it is up to you to decide if you hit Like on this article or actually take time and comment on it to show that you really care.
Just think about it!