Hajra Naz
The internet wouldn’t be the same without the Like button. That small thumbs-up icon has become a universal way to show approval, support, or recognition. Popularized by Facebook, the Like button evolved into one of the most powerful digital tools for engagement. It has influenced
- Online behavior
- Shaped social networks
- Affected mental health.
But the story behind it isn’t as simple as a click. A new book titled “Like: The Button That Changed The World” dives deep into its complex origins, cultural impact, and unintended consequences.
From Ancient Gladiators to Digital Gestures
The roots of the Like button go way back. The thumbs-up and thumbs-down signs were used in ancient Rome to decide a fighter’s fate in the arena. This idea became popular again through the movie Gladiator, where the emperor used the gesture to give life-or-death orders.
In the 1970s, the thumbs-up got a fun twist in the TV show Happy Days. Fonzie, played by Henry Winkler, made it a sign of being cool.
Later in the 2000s, TiVo added thumbs-up buttons on remotes. People used them to rate TV shows, bringing the gesture into modern tech.
The Silicon Valley Spark
On May 18, 2005, a Yelp employee named Bob Goodson sketched a simple thumbs-up and thumbs-down icon to help users express opinions on restaurant reviews. Though Yelp didn’t adopt it (opting instead for buttons like “useful,” “funny,” and “cool”), that early idea stuck with Goodson.
Goodson later teamed up with Martin Reeves to track the Like button’s evolution. They found out that many tech pioneers in Silicon Valley had been thinking about similar ideas for a long time. People were all trying to find simple ways for users to give feedback online, like
- Yelp’s Russ Simmons
- Twitter’s Biz Stone
- YouTube’s Steve Chen
- PayPal’s Max Levchin
- Gmail’s Paul Buchheit.
Facebook Joins the Game
Despite being credited with making the Like button famous, Facebook didn’t invent it. The company almost scrapped the idea completely.
Engineers at Facebook had been experimenting with a Like button since 2007. But CEO Mark Zuckerberg was against it. He feared it would clutter the interface or seem trivial. According to Reeves, Zuckerberg worried the button would “cheapen the service.”
Meanwhile, a competing social platform called FriendFeed, co-founded by Paul Buchheit and now OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor, had no such reservations. It launched a Like button in October 2007. Eventually, Facebook acquired FriendFeed and, by 2009, rolled out its own Like button on February 9th — five years after the social network launched.
Interestingly, the original idea was to call it the “Awesome” button. Zuckerberg reportedly dismissed the name, saying, “Nothing is more awesome than awesome.”
Read More: Your Digital Privacy Matters: How to Turn Off Facebook’s Link History on iPhone and Android
How One Button Changed Everything
Once launched, the Like button exploded in popularity. It changed how users interacted with content and with each other. More importantly, it gave Facebook the ability to:
- Keep users engaged for longer
- Understand user preferences
- Deliver highly targeted ads
- Increase time spent on the platform
This data-driven approach helped Facebook generate over $165 billion in ad revenue in 2023 alone. The Like button was so effective that other companies quickly followed suit. Facebook later introduced additional reactions in 2016, such as “Love,” “Haha,” “Wow,” “Sad,” and “Angry,” further deepening user engagement.
A Cultural and Emotional Shift
The Like button did more than change tech platforms. It changed society. Getting likes became a form of validation, especially among young users. Posts that didn’t receive likes could make people feel ignored or rejected. For some, the button-fed narcissism; for others, it created anxiety and loneliness.
Reeves, the book’s co-author, said, “If you can’t even predict the beneficial effects of a technological innovation, how could you possibly forecast the side effects?”
Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal, told the authors that the Like button created one of the most valuable feedback loops on the internet. He said.
“What content is liked by humans is probably one of the singularly most valuable things on the internet.”
The Legacy of the Like Button
Despite the downsides, the Like button endures. It has been clicked trillions of times. Its success shows how a small symbol can reflect big ideas about human connection, validation, and communication.
Reeves concluded,
“We thought the serendipity of the innovation was part of the point. And I don’t think we can get bored with liking or having our capacity to compliment taken away so easily — it’s the product of 100,000 years of evolution.”
From a Roman arena to your smartphone screen, the Like-Button is here to stay, both as a symbol of support and as a reminder of how technology taps into what makes us human.
