内容摘要：There are celebrities whose persona is as famous, if not more so, than their works, or what made them stars in the first place.

There are celebrities whose persona is as famous, if not more so, than their works, or what made them stars in the first place.

Like it or not, the button has served as a creative catalyst, a dopamine delivery system and an emotional battering ram. It also became an international tourist attraction after Facebook plastered the symbol on a giant sign that stood outside its Silicon Valley headquarters until the company rebranded itself as Meta Platforms in 2021.delves into the convoluted story behind a symbol that’s become both the manna and bane of a digitally driven society.

It’s a tale that traces back to gladiator battles for survival during the Roman Empire before fast-forwarding to the early 21st century when technology trailblazers such as Yelp co-founder Russ Simmons, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, and Gmail inventor Paul Buchheit were experimenting with different ways of using the currency of recognition to prod people to post compelling content online for free.As part of that noodling, a Yelp employee named Bob Goodson sat down on May 18, 2005, and drew a crude sketch of thumbs up and thumbs down gestures as a way for people to express their opinions about restaurant reviews posted on the site. Yelp passed on adopting Goodson’s suggested symbol and, instead, adopted the “useful,” “funny” and “cool” buttons conceived by Simmons. But the discovery of that old sketch inspired Goodson to team up with Martin Reeves to explore how the Like button came to be in their new book.“It’s something simple and also elegant because the Like button says, ‘I like you, I like your content. And I am like you. I like you because I am like you, I am part of your tribe,’ ” Reeves said during an interview with The Associated Press. “But it’s very hard to answer the simple question, ‘Well, who invented the Like button?’ ”

Although Facebook is the main reason the Like button became so ubiquitous, the company didn’t invent it and almost discarded it as drivel. It took Facebook nearly two years to overcome the staunch resistance by CEO Mark Zuckerberg before finally introducing the symbol on its service on February 9, 2009 — five years after the social network’s creation in a Harvard University dorm room.As happens with many innovations, the Like button was born out of necessity but it wasn’t the brainchild of a single person. The concept percolated for more than a decade in Silicon Valley before Facebook finally embraced it.

“Innovation is often social and Silicon Valley was the right place for all this to happen because it has a culture of meetups, although it’s less so now,” Reeves said. “Everyone was getting together to talk about what they were working on at that time and it turned out a lot of them were working on the same stuff.”

The effort to create a simple mechanism to digitally express approval or dismay sprouted from a wellspring of online services such as Yelp and YouTube whose success would hinge on their ability to post commentary or video that would help make their sites even more popular without forcing them to spend a lot of money for content. That effort required a feedback loop that wouldn’t require a lot of hoops to navigate.SUNBURY, Ohio (AP) — For the Young family in rural Sunbury, Ohio, activism begins at home.

From left, Gianna Young, holding a sign that reads “We Vote Pro-God Pro-America Pro-Life Pro-Freedom” and her brothers Lucas and Isaac, holding a “Choose Life” sign, march with their mom, Erin Young, during the Ohio March for Life in Columbus, Ohio, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. All three children are adopted. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)From left, Gianna Young, holding a sign that reads “We Vote Pro-God Pro-America Pro-Life Pro-Freedom” and her brothers Lucas and Isaac, holding a “Choose Life” sign, march with their mom, Erin Young, during the Ohio March for Life in Columbus, Ohio, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. All three children are adopted. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The conservative Catholic family chooses to live their anti-abortion beliefs through adoption, foster-parenting and raising their children to believe in the sanctity of life. They’re also committed to teaching their children about political candidates they see as aligned with their beliefs.Erin Young holds her adopted daughter Gianna Young, 7, as she prays the “Patriotic Rosary” for the consecration of the nation and Donald Trump with family and members of their Catholic church around a bonfire at their home the night before the election, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Sunbury, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)