As you may have heard, the world is ending.
This week Twitter changed the star-shaped "favorite" button to a heart shaped "like" button.
The world... responded. Here are the best reactions to the switch, followed by a way too in-depth analysis of how Twitter management is hoping this innocuous change will make money and is their first step in addressing cyberbullying.
There were more reactions across Twitter than you would expect for a 5-millimeter-long virtual shape. But as seemingly meaningless as the move is, the logic behind Twitter changing the symbol is quite significant.
Social media brands put deep levels of thought into their layout, and users generally hate when layouts change (think about the angry mobs that pop up when Facebook changes something). Companies will only endure the vitriol that comes with an update if they think it is a worthy development. (Google, who changes their logo constantly, is the obvious exception to this rule.) Twitter wouldn't change anything, even something as small as a button, without intensive scrutiny.
So what was the thinking that went into Twitter's change? Changing the "favorite" star to a "like" heart is one of Twitter's first moves since they hired Jack Dorsey as CEO in October. While it may seem trivial to us, Dorsey is hoping to bring in more revenue and change the culture of Twitter itself, and the heart is the first step in that direction.
Jack Dorsey was one of the original founders of Twitter in 2007. He actually was the first person to send a tweet (back when we used the phrase "send a tweet," instead of, "tweeted").
First of all, @jack is such a baller handle.
Dorsey's background sounds like a character from Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. He loved coding from a young age. At 15 years old, he created dispatch software that taxis still use today. After originally coming up with the idea of Twitter for Blackberry, Dorsey founded the company with two co-partners in 2006.
Dorsey was fired in 2008, but like Steve Jobs who was fired from Apple only to come back years later, Dorsey returned to the company in 2010 and was hired as CEO in October. After a lengthy interview process, he was named CEO despite the fact that he is also running another company. Yes, you read that right. He is running two companies at the same time. His sidejob is the CEO of Square, which is a mobile payment service seeking a $3.9 billion evaluation. So the next time you're too lazy to get out of bed to grab a bottle of water for your hangover, remember that there is a guy running two of the largest companies in the world simultaneously.
One of the main reasons Dorsey was hired despite, ya know, having another full time job is because a co-founder has a moral authority to make changes that others don't. Another CEO may be hesitant to alter the 140-character limit, which Twitter is considering, but Dorsey invented the rule in the first place.
This is critical because Twitter needs to shake things up. In the last six months, Twitter shares have fallen over 40 percent, which represents a $15 billion loss of value. Trying to stop the bleeding, one of Dorsey's first moves as CEO was laying off up to 336 employees, or 8 percent of Twitter's staff. But layoffs won't change that Twitter's sharp fall stems from investor fears that the company is done growing its user base and unable to increase advertising revenue.
Enter the "Like" button.
Announcing the switch, Twitter said their rationale was that, "You might like a lot of things, but not everything can be your favorite."
What that translates to is Twitter wants you to interact with the site more, and it's less socially awkward to like than favorite. Favoriting a tweet for somebody you don't really know could come off as stalkerish, but a "like" might be alright in the same way people you would never talk to in real life don't comment on your Facebook posts but probably like them. Imagine the post-apocalyptic world where you could only "favorite" somebody's Instagram.
More activity on Twitter means more revenue because increased clicks means more advertising dollars.
Changing the button from "favorite" to "like" is a move that Dorsey hopes will drive revenue. But why did Twitter change the symbol from a star to a heart?
In the press release announcing the move Twitter stated:
"The heart, in contrast, is a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones. The heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people. And in our tests, we found that people loved it."
The press release continued that their second choice was a puppy riding a unicorn across the rainbow.
Twitter is not only hoping to increase interactions, but also trying to create a happier environment.
The internet is a pretty terrible place. We live in a world where people made death threats against a 13-year-old because she wrote a song about a day of the week.
Twitter is now the host of those parasitic YouTube commenters. Researchers have confirmed that a huge number of Twitter users are racist, homophobic and sexist.
Twitter can be a particularly awful place for women. Lena Dunham attracted attention to this issue when she quit Twitter in September, saying, "...it really, truly wasn't a safe space for me." Dunham still has an account but does not personally type her messages nor look at her replies. Twitter hostility is so prevalent Jimmy Kimmel has an entire YouTube series around them, which is both hysterical and incredibly sad.
Twitter is aware that the hostility is a problem. "We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we've sucked at it for years," then Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said in an internal memo in February.
Dorsey is trying to address the disgusting underworld of Twitter and create a friendlier culture that will make Twitter a better experience for current users as well as attract new ones.
But Dorsey is in danger of half-assing it. Or as Mike from Breaking Bad would say, he's taking a half-measure. Hoping that hearts change how people think and behave is akin to praying the gay away.
The only way to truly address Twitter's abusive culture is to begin banning people, which admittedly is messy, but it is a no brainer compared to keeping the cyber bullying culture we have today.
