Rethinking the "Like" button

Graphic by Scott Beale, Laughing Squid

Recently I've been inundated by "Like" requests from Facebookers. "Like" my page! "Like" my product! "Like" my book! Like me! Like me!


I used to be a promiscuous Liker. Show me your Like button, and I'd press it. Why not? I figured. There's little enough like in the world, say nothing of love. I was a one-woman sunshine squad, spreading the Like around.


But then I read that if you Like something, your endorsement might turn up in a Facebook ad or Sponsored Story. I started worrying about my lengthy trail of Likes. Egad, what if my mug wound up in an ad for Jello(R) Chocobeasts? I moved quickly to counteract potential damage; first I reset my Privacy options so that my name can't be used without specific permission. Then I went through the products that were hawking messages in my timeline; I must have liked those products sometime in my glad-handering past. I Unliked all the ones I could track down.


Nowadays I seldom press the "Like" button. Like Sally Field, I have to really, really like you. To "Like" you, I mean. And I've started to pine for a "Dislike" button.


It's not personal. It's business. But isn't that what all the Like-mongers are after, after all? Our business?


Am I the only person who has grown wary of the Like button? Have any of you wound up unintentionally in an ad, simply because you Liked something?