“Success Theater” means only sharing an idealized version of yourself where you’re always happy. Now a bug in Facebook’s new mood sharing feature is taking that concept way too literally. Select that you’re “Unhappy” and Facebook adds a smiley face to your post instead of a frown emoticon. [Update: Facebook apparently saw this and has since fixed the bug.]
Alas, these little fumbles (this one first spotted by The Onion’s Jack Stuef] are the price you pay for reduced bureaucracy and Facebook’s “Move Fast And Break Things” culture.
Overall I still think the mood sharing feature which is currently available to US users has the potential to make us less shy and more expressive. Some people just aren’t comfortable talking about their feelings, but maybe would be willing to select them from a drop-down menu. Meanwhile, structured data about our mood could let Facebook serve us ads for concerts when we’re happy and food delivery when we’re sad.
Our inner most thoughts and emotions are a sensitive subject, though. If you didn’t notice the incorrect face you could share a pretty awkward update of a smile about some tragedy. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.