Facebook wants us to be open about our feelings

For years we have been using emoticons in chat to show people how we are feeling and to add context around our statements. In our society filled with sarcasm, what better way to tell people the meaning of our statements. Statements can be taken literally, in a teasing way or as simply sarcastic.

Facebook recently launched it’s own emoticon option within status updates. When posting an update you can now display your mood. I suppose it is an obvious evolution. We all have friends that use Facebook as their outlet to communicate their joy or disgust. There are so many more emotions than just happy and sad. I’m actually interested to see how my friends leverage this function. In fact I am “hopeful” that I don’t just get “annoyed” with its use.

Another interesting thing to consider is what Facebook may be looking to do with this information. The targeting capabilities of advertising within the network are already pretty strong. Imagine if a brand can now trigger an ad to you based on your current emotional state. If you tag yourself as sick, you could be presented with ads from a local pharmacy or medical clinic. If you say you are alone, you could see ads for dating sites. These are just two obvious examples. It will be fascinating to see how far the targeting may go.