How do likes and reactions as interactional features on Facebook status updates posted in 2016 extend narrative evaluation?

Research has investigated Facebook likes, their role in evaluating online content, and expanding evaluative practices in a computer-mediated environment. However, newly-released reactions on Facebook have not yet received any scholarly attention. The current study takes an emic approach to inform bottom-up analysis of likes and reactions used to respond to Facebook status updates posted in 2016, in order to observe the degree of evaluation extension occurring in this environment. Three stages of data have been collected: a self-report survey, a sub-sample of status updates, and a contextual questionnaire for status update authors. The results suggest that likes and reactions have afforded an increase in and an extension to evaluative practices on Facebook when compared with past studies. Despite reactions being intended by Facebook to clarify evaluations in a continuum of emotion, likes are still used significantly more than reactions in 2016. It is argued that this could be due to numerous factors: likes' familiarity and integration in Facebook-user habits and competency compared to reactions; multiple meanings already attributed to likes before reactions were released; and the ease of practical and functional affordances of using likes as a "minimal effort response" over reactions. The small selection of status updates analysed in the study limits the accuracy of the conclusions reached. A further longitudinal study involving a larger status sample would increase the representative value of the current study's propositions, and would trace the uses and attitudes concerning likes and reactions as evaluative practices on Facebook over time.