"I have poked you!!"

I just poked a bunch of friends. Poked them back, actually. On Facebook that is. I kinda had to you see, because, the one who stops poking loses which is not something I like to do. Actually, I may have lost already, because I haven't done any poking in weeks. According to one set of "official" rules you lose a "poke war" if you don't poke back within 48 hours. :( But, hey, I didn't hit the x button so I am still in the game, right?


On another tack, there are rather a large number of theories about what poking "means." Some people think it's just a way of saying "hello." I can go with that. That's how I use it.

Others think of it as a way to get attention and still others figure it's a form of flirting. For some people, I suspect it is and I hope they enjoy it. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately in some cases) most people say they find that poking doesn't lead anywhere. I suppose that makes it a safe way to flirt.

Well, almost. People have been arrested for poking someone on Facebook. Of course, restraining orders were involved.

There are other ideas about poking out there. Facebook actually has their own explanation of poking.

"When we created the poke, we thought it would be cool to have a feature without any specific purpose. People interpret the poke in many different ways, and we encourage you to come up with your own meanings."

Their own meanings. Ah. People have come up with those. Prolifically. If you google "facebook poke" you find dozens, probably hundreds, of pages with discussions of this. A random sampling will reveal a suprising number of views on the subject.


You know what this means? Some people take this way too seriously and think about it way too much. But, then again, it's rather more harmless than a lot of things people think about, so why not go ahead and think about it?



Have a fun day!