This chart shows the rise of Facebook fury in the US
A Pew survey found more people used 'angry' emoticons than 'love' when reacting to political stories. Image: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Americans have been turning to Facebook to express their frustration with representatives and senators in Congress.
Since the introduction of the ‘angry’ button on Facebook in February 2016, the Pew Research Center has been monitoring its use in relation to updates shared by the 535 elected officials at the heart of the US Federal government.
Between 24 February and 8 November 2016 (presidential election day) the Facebook audience hit ‘angry’ a total of 3.6 million times in response to posts made by members of Congress. But that negative tendency soared in the aftermath of the election. Across the same time period post-November, that same ‘angry’ face was called into action almost 14 million times.
It’s not all bad news though.
Pew Research also found plenty of love on Facebook. The ‘love’ reaction was was used 7 million times in the pre-election period – dwarfing ‘angry’ – and grew to 12 million after the election - 2 million behind ‘angry’.
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