Credits: Social Media
I used to ‘Poke’ all the time on Facebook, until it became creepy
Facebook launched the ‘Poke’ feature in 2004 without disclosing its exact purpose. As users started to play with the feature in order to finds its purpose, the tool unintentionally morphed from playful to sinister. Despite huge initial success, two decades later I only remember the feature for all the wrong reasons.
As opposed to what several not-so-active Facebook users think, the ‘fun’ Poke feature is still an active part of the social media site. However, poking someone isn’t exactly viewed as a social norm anymore but rather unnecessary, and even creepy depending on your experiences.
Meaning of ‘Poke’ on Facebook and how to do it
For a day or two, discussions about Facebook‘s Poke have been on the rise. Many users who weren’t on the platform when Poke was enabled 20 years ago are trying to learn how to use it, while others are getting flashbacks to all the bizarre poke-based encounters they’ve endured.
The feature is exactly what the name suggests. It’s used to ‘poke’ your friends and fellow users (Friends of Friends) on Facebook.
The official blog notes: “People can poke their friends or friends of friends on Facebook. When you poke someone, they’ll get a notification.”
To find the feature all you need to do is look for ‘pokes’ on the search bar and it’ll appear on top of your page. By selecting it, you will notifications about the pokes you have received and ‘Suggested Pokes’ to try it on someone else.
There’s nothing else the feature can do for you, except let someone know your presence. And perhaps that’s where the root of the problem begins.
I ‘poked’ all the time, until it became creepy
As Facebook did not clearly define the purpose of pokes, users started to add their own meaning to it. At first, it was extremely fun to do – randomly poke your bestie and wait until they poke you back, only to do it over and over again. Hilarious.
I never got tired of doing it and my Facebook friends on the receiving end never got bored of responding to my pokes. I would check Facebook first thing in the morning to see if my crush had poked me back after I had poked him in the middle of our flirtatious conversation from the previous night.
But the feature lost all its original essence and became something more sinister when people I had never seen in my life started to make their presence felt by giving me an unnesciary virtual poke. All of a sudden the notion started to feel entirely different. It felt kind of creepy.
When a stranger ‘slides in’ to your direct messages it feels somewhat natural as you have words to help decipher intentions. You can instantly process the transaction. Emotionally register what has been said and respond in whatever way you feel best. Even if – like in most cases – you decide to ignore the message, you can do so with confidence as you are aware of the initial intentions from the person messaging you. There’s no mystery or second guessing why someone has approached you, and for me that makes me feel much more secure.
But that’s not the case with a Poke. Here, you can only do two things. You can poke them back or remove the poke… which only allows them to poke you all over again.
For me, the mere notification used to plant doubt and scepticism in my mind. What is it this stranger wants? Why have they decided to poke me? Do I know them? For a short period I couldn’t stop thinking and panicking about Pokes from random social media users, especially when users poked me continually, forcing me to block them.
I felt like I was being watched by a strange, silent spectator. A social stalker who could feed off my reaction to their pokes.
It’s been years since I poked someone or got poked on Facebook and there isn’t a single thing I miss about it.
