'Like' it or not

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.