‘Hate With Friends’ Tells You Which Friends Hate You, But Only If You Hate Them Too
A new website called Hate With Friends lets you scrutinize your Facebook friends list and choose which friends you secretly hate. If they do the same and hate you too, you’re both notified. It’s an idea you’d never see sanctioned by Facebook itself, which offers no alternative to the ever-present “Like” buttons.
Logging onto the site brings up a list of all your friends on Facebook. Below each picture and name is a menacing red button that reads “HATE HER” or “HATE HIM.” Hover over the button and it reads, “[So-and-so] won’t know you hate him/her until s/he hates you too.” The website has some special features. You can view everyone, only people you hate, or only people who hate you too. You can even set up email notifications in the settings area. And don’t worry, if you click the hate button by accident, you can undo it with another click of the button, this time titled, “DON’T HATE HIM/HER.”
While this site could very well lead to some friendship break-ups, 30-year-old creator Chris Baker just wants his site to bring some fun back to Facebook. “I’m hoping people treat it as a joke and get themselves to look at Facebook in a new, funny way,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “We’re locked into social network obligations with people we don’t like,” he said, comparing Facebook and other social networks to “awful parties that you can’t escape.”
Baker isn’t concerned that his site will be used with malice intent. When asked if he thought the use of the site could harm teenagers’ self-esteem, he replied to the Los Angeles Times, “I thought teenagers weren’t on Facebook?”
This isn’t Baker’s first time trying to weed out people and things that people don’t like online. He previously created Unbaby.me, now called Rather. This add-on lets users replace anything they don’t want to see with something better. The site explains, “Replace anything you want in your social feeds with things you’d rather see, like cats.”
