'Say Thanks': Facebook launches new feature to encourage gratitude this ...

'We wanted to make it super simple,' design manager Cameron Ewing said in an interview with USA Today. 'This is a great moment to let people unleash that notion of gratitude.'

Some have found the feature a little too simple as critics have called the fixed-format videos 'cheesy' and 'impersonal.' Slate called the project 'a terrible way to thank someone.' Slate writer Lily Hay Newman specifically pointed out that this is a first effort at replacing thank-you notes, which are one of the few things in our society that has remained on paper in a digital-savy society.

'The fact that society still values written thank-you notes doesn't mean that a heartfelt digital thank-you isn't possible,' Newman wrote. 'But, as you can see above, 'Say Thanks' is just an amalgam of everything that's impersonal about digital gratitude.'

Ultimately, the feature encourages people to express gratitude and to be thankful for the people in their lives and while some believe the feature is generic and lacks a person touch, users can make the message they post with the video as personal as they would like. For example, Brooke Fail from North Carolina wrote to her little sister, Amanda, who is expecting her first child, 'Hey Amanda, just wanted to make you a cute little video too! We have had so much fun together and I'm so thankful for you! Also I was thinking the other day about how sweet you were taking care of me when I got my wisdom teeth out and I just know you're going to be an awesome mom!! I love you!!'

Add a nice message to photos set to music and it is bound to solicit nostalgia. If you're not convinced, maybe a few quotes from opinion leaders on expressing gratitude can help you understand that encouraging users to 'say thanks' can't be so bad:

Gladys Browyn Stern - 'Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone'

William Arthur Ward - 'Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not give it.'

Mark Twain - 'I can live for two months on a good compliment.'

Therefore, while there are probably a thousand better ways to thank someone, Facebook's videos are encouraging gratitude. Thus, it would seem to be something that should be supported rather than bashed.

'Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted,' English author Aldous Huxley said.

It's hard to forget when the videos cover your newsfeed and it's easy to 'get around to it' when the video can be made in less than a minute.

So maybe Facebook is doing a good thing and maybe people should take this opportunity, whether through a 'cheesy' facebook video or through something more personal, to express gratitude for those they love.