Monday, June 27, 2022

Why don’t we poke anymore?

 



A Facebook poke is a feature on the social media platform that lets users send a single virtual notification to a friend. No more, no less. Despite the feature’s name, the purpose of a ‘poke’ has never been entirely clear.

 

People can poke their friends or friends of friends on Facebook. When you poke someone, they'll get a notification. To see and send pokes, visit your pokes page. If you don't want someone to poke you, you can block him or her or they.

 

Facebook hasn’t changed the Poke button since it first launched. The point of it was never really clear, although one could argue it was there to exhibit a friendly, fun college environment. If you poke someone, all you're really doing is giving your friend a notification that tells him or her they have been poked.

 

We have poked each other since we began interacting. We make fun of names, haircuts, clothing of others. We make fun how we run or play ball or show emotion. We make fun of the other sex. This is the method of forming groups of likes and dislikes. We hang out with those whose ‘pokes’ we can tolerate while making fun of others.

 

Some of our pokes are made to be hurtful or to demend or racist or harassment. Sport coaches poke athletes to try harder. Military uses harassment to break down personal identities to form a coherent unit that follows orders.

 

We poke each other in sports bars when our team wins and poke each other’s attire at the formal dance. We poke each other over food preparation then poke it in our face. We poke each other about our transportation, housing and even children (and pets).

 

Sometimes our pokes can result in fistfights. Some times our pokes can get us elected. Even after we are dead, our legacy will be poked.

 

The nicest conversations and greetings are being poked behind your back. Whatever the subject there is someone who will take a poke at it.

 

Maybe our ‘pokes’ have turned into comments? Instead of just saying “Hi!” we leave snide or snarky comments.

 

Maybe we should leave our poking to the bedroom?

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