Hats off to Mark Zuckerberg
or whoever who claims to be the father of the social network. For he was able
to spot the urge of the homo-erectus to share. Without this basic human instinct
of sharing there would have been no revolution on the social networking front. Be
it sharing ‘What are you doing?’ on Twitter or ‘What is on your mind?’ on
Facebook, or be it ‘Where are you?’ on Foursquare, people are more than willing
to succumb to these parental questions.
The human being was always known
to be a social creature and thus as an extension to this behavior, sharing with
his peer group was an acceptable norm. Back then basic needs of existence were
shared. As the ages passed and with
advent of technology, the physical world around each person constricted to his
cubicle, however his basic craving for sharing didn’t subside. As an extension of
their prehistoric traits, the current day Neolithic man too had things to share
though it widely differed from the days of yore.
Enter Facebook. Now one had an
easy platform for broadcasting his feelings, his thoughts, his achievements,
his failures. One could share his good times and the memories through photos; could
share a good laugh through a video or a joke; could share some information
through URLs and docs. As an extension to this there was also a provision for
feedback through the ‘comments’ one can leave against each entry on the wall.
One could comment back on the original post with remarks approving – disapproving,
complementing-supplementing, accepting-denying, arguing for or against the
original post. Quite often the comments dwarf the original posts in size,
content and number.
However there is another
often underplayed means of feedback provided in FB. In a ‘Eureka!’ moment somebody
came up with the idea of that little ‘thumbs-up’ icon that dots each post on
FB. If I ever get to interact with the brain behind this brilliant concept, I
would like to know his thoughts behind creating it. I would want to know what
it meant to him because I feel it means varied different things for different
people.
A ‘like’ to any post can mean
one approves the post, it can mean popularity, or it could just mean a
read-receipt. It could also mean heeding to someone’s request. Or just plain
thinking it could go with its literal meaning and be just a ‘like’. This is my
understanding of it after having observed people ‘like’ different things.
Let’s begin with liking a
photo, which could mean appreciating the skill of the person behind the lens or
it could mean that one liked the person who is being photographed. Even with a
deluge of DSLR camera armed ‘amateur’ photographers spawning in the post FB era,
it’s still not a herculean task to spot that one brilliant artist among them.
Invariably his pictures would have more likes than the rest crap. Thus these ‘likes’
stand as validation of the brilliance of the artist and thus acts as
endorsement.
Another kind of posts which
attracts lots of ‘likes’ are the posts which deliver some good news or
achievement. Be it arrival of a baby, cracking an interview or topping an
examination, all the well-wishers in the reciprocatory gesture like the post.
This likes I reckon stand for ‘Congratulatory wishes’ by those lazy bumps that
are too lazy to type it out in the comments.
Discounting these sloths
there do exist people who would convey their good wishes through comments to
the post. And guess what the original author of the post do in return? Yes, you
nailed it. He will ‘like’ those congratulatory messages as an acknowledgement.
So far it looks all
relatively rationale. But not when the post is about some grim news. Believe it
or not I have witnessed people ‘liking’ post about someone’s loss or ‘liking’
news items about gruesome crime like rape or murder. What does a ‘like’ signify
in such a situation? I hope the people who have liked it aren’t justifying the
act. I will hazard a guess and speculate these ‘like’ indicate that the post
had been read a la a read-receipt.
The dynamics of likes doesn’t
end here. The number of likes to differ based on a variety of reasons and one
of the primary factors being the gender of the person.
Post a snap of a kid and most
of the girls in the friends list would be the first to ‘like’ it often backed
with comments which sound like schoo schweet. The kind of post which invokes
such fervent ‘liking’ spurt amongst guys is often a post from a girl, content
being irrelevant.
Another interesting
observation I have made is how a similar posts invokes varied response
depending whether it’s a girl or a boy who has posted. Let me give you an
example of such chauvinist ‘liking’ behavior. A ‘Not feeling well’ post would evoke
hundreds of ‘likes’ (assumption: like = read) mostly from the males on her
friends list; however a guy’s ‘Met with an accident, Fractured leg’ would have
just a few ‘likes’ if at all.
Sticking to this sexist
line, you would find all the ‘likes’ to a photo of super-cars will inadvertently
be from males and that from females would be generally on fashion accessories
et al. So the ‘Like’ can give you a valuable insight in human psychology and nature.
I had a good friend who once
pleaded to me to like his selfies. His argument being that he dedicatedly liked
all the photos I posted on my wall and I should reciprocate. He used to also
keep a real-time track of how many more likes he needed to reach the
half-century or century mark. Never did I disappoint him ever since and liked
each of his profile picture albeit with a disclaimer comment saying ‘Liking your
photo as requested by you J’
Remember those pesky chain
mails? Yes, those chain mails might have died but looks like its proponents
have adapted to new technology. Those ‘Forward this mail if you want to have
good luck’ has now transformed into ‘Like this post if you are a patriot’. On
some specific days viz: Father’s days, Mother’s day it adapts to read ‘Like if
you love you mother’. The number of ‘likes’ is only the proof of such numerous
superstitious zealots still doting the world.
Talking of the zealots
reminds me of the heated debates that happen on these numerous FB forums.
Irrespective of what the forum is about most of the discussion take the colour of
religious beliefs, political inclinations or patriotic fervor. The hot flavor
of current election season being the ‘BJP vs Congress’ or more specifically the
‘NaMo vs RaGa’ debate. Though there are usually a few of them arguing and
counter-arguing, you can get a fair idea of which side the inclination of the
silent majority likes just by observing which comments they ‘like’.
Just as in case of the multi-faceted
word ‘fuck’ which can be used and noun, verb, adverb, adjective and many things
more, so is the case with the ‘likes’ which can stand for a variety of things.
So when I post the link to this article onto Facebook I would have a task at my
hand to figure out why did the reader ‘like’ it? Well, I hope they like it J.
