Could the history of likes or dislikes date back to Greek times?

I was watching an old black and white movie, filmed back in the late 1940’s, that had a story line of gladiators performing the coliseum during the Greek era. After gladiators fought and no one died, it was decided by the referee if one of the gladiators was spared or put to death. However, the decision by the referee was made by the crowd’s mood with shouting or by using hand gestures of a thumbs up or thumbs down motion for life or death.  Something triggered in my mind, what we now call “social” likes and dislikes and if it has the same representation.  If you liked something, perhaps a video or photo, would it get thumbs up or if you did not like it get thumbs down. And using the crowd to make the decision. Could it be possible, the history of likes or dislikes dates back to Greek times?

The more you like something online, the higher the rating goes. For example, the more likes you get on some of the social media sites, the more it moves up to in popularity. We have also seen in the past year, how someone can become a star practically overnight, by lots of thumbs up (likes). Could that mean death of something online if it gets many thumbs down?  Possibly. Some could say this is what we also call crowd sourcing. Many are using crowd sourcing for generating ideas from the public (or crowds). Being able to share your idea(s) and have others rate it, the more popular it becomes the more it moves to the top of the list. Ultimately knowing what likes and dislikes helps in the decision making process, as it lets leaders know what is important to the people.

Of course, the movie I was watching was produced from Hollywood. This could very well be just Hollywood influence and interpretation of the Greek history. But crowd sourcing and social networking will continue to grow for what is popular, innovative or what technically dies.

Additional readings:

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/03/crowdsourcing-evolution-of-congressional-websites.html
http://irevolution.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/towards-a-model-for-successful-crowdsourcing/
http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/2010/03/open-philanthropy-modest-manifesto.html