Did you just Poke me?

I decided one afternoon to explore the art of Poking on Facebook. Over the past few years there have been a few Friends that continually Poke me. Occasionally I would Poke them back, only to have them Poke me again right away.

I decided to Poke everyone on my Friend List. That sounds easy enough, but it’s not. It takes a lot of time and effort. First I started just poking everyone that showed up in my Feed. I quickly ran out of victims that way. Then I decided I should be more organized and I started poking friends alphabetically. This took some time. I had to go to my Profile, click my Friend List, sort it by All Friends and then Poke. Each Poke required a repeat of the above procedure. I walked away from it several times, annoyed that it was such a pain in the butt to execute.  After two or three days I was satisfied that I had poked everyone, only to realize that during that timeframe, many people had already Poked me back.

Now I Poked a few hundred people, but only 35 people returned the Poke. I was surprised by some of them because there were some folks I Poked that I thought would never Poke back, and they did! That was interesting. Also out of the 35 Pokes were people that Poked me again and again consistantly each time I re-Poked my list.

This morning I checked and I am down to just 10 Pokes. This is a good time to explore my research and actually read what other people have to say about Pokes on Facebook.

I Googled this search term and it found 193,000 topics on this conversation. I guess I’m not the only person with questions about Poking!

According to EZine Articles Face book Poking is simply a way to say “Hello, I’m thinking about you.” then the article continues including a story about two pe0ple that ended up dating from Poking each other on Facebook.

There is actually a group you can join on Facebook called What is the real Meaning of ‘Poking’ – the Social Experiment. This group seems to be exploring the same things I am, except they seem to think Poking is a method widely used for flirtation with someone you might want to date. The group site includes an experiment you can do on your own and then report the results back to the group.

Another group you can join on Facebook is Divulging the meaning of the Facebook Poke from Glasgow, Scotland. They also seem to be exploring this phenomenon.

Wikipedia seems to have it all figured out though. Here’s that they have to say on the Poke;

“The poke feature is intended to be a “nudge” to attract the attention of another user. Many facebook users use this feature to attract attention or say “hello” to their friends.^[22] A previous version of Facebook’s FAQ gave additional insight into the origin of the feature, stating: “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.”^{[citation needed]}

There are several applications on Facebook which extend the idea of the poke feature by allowing users to perform other actions to their friends—such as “kick” or “wave to”. People often reciprocate pokes back and forth until one side gives up, an event known as a “Poke War”.”

I agree, I think people should come up with their own meaning for the Poke, within reason.

I have to admit, as I was Poking everyone on my Friend list there were a few I hesitated over. I didn’t want to come across as mean, or aggressive, or provocative. I especially didn’t want anyone to think I was being flirtatious. This could also be why I announced my experiment on the Poking I was doing using my Status Update. Cowardly, I know, and it skewed the data I was collecting a bit too, but it made me feel better.

What did all of that Poking tell me? It told me a great deal, believe it, or not.

There are many of my Friends that I never see in my Home Feed. They are not constant Posters like I am. It was nice to see some of them Poke me back. I now know that they do Log in to their accounts occasionally and that we still have a connection. Perhaps they’re reading all about us and it makes them feel like we’re down the street. It’s nice to know they’re paying attention, it was great to see their name pop up on my Page. I miss them.

Poking also reconnected me with friends abroad that I admire and miss. It opened conversations about flying across the globe soon for a visit and I now know I can look forward to seeing them in 2011.

There’s a group of girls on here that are always so much fun. I interact with them on Facebook frequently. Poking gave us a chance to show our girl-crushes and be cute with each other.

I think that while you can use the Poke feature for whatever reason you wish, the best reason is to let someone know you’re thinking about them. If you decide to use Poking to flirt, make sure the person you’re Poking is in the flirtation arena. It’s never cool to Poke someone with romance in mind if they’re attached to someone else.

I have to go Poke some folks now. Poke you later!