Do You Poke?
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One of the core features in Facebook is poking.
The feature is so simple and silly that most people developing a software would never consider adding it. But that’s not how Facebook users think. They love it.
This is how it works:
A user, let’s call him Jonas, presses the poke button in my profile. That’s it, he has now poked me. The next time I go to my Facebook main page, I see a small notification saying “You were poked by Jonas.” Together with the text there are options to poke back or ignore the poke.
It’s weird, but I usually press poke back, which leads us to infinite friendly rounds of poking each other back and forth.
I’m however still an amateur in poking. I have a few friends who I know to have been poking each other for hours non-stop only to then move to something a bit more sophisticated like SuperPoke (a version of Poke that lets you choose an action, such as Throw a fish at ___) or Rock, Paper and Scissors.
So, first of all, are you a poker? Or is poking still a big unknown to you? Can you understand what makes poking so popular?
Here’s what I think:
On the Internet people are not looking for fancy graphics or amazing functionality. They are looking for other people - their community.
In that context poking is interesting because they know that the person they are poking (or who is poking them) is real. It’s someone they know. A real human being.
Poking could easily be emulated with a piece of software that would just randomly send poke messages to you. But if that was done, poking wouldn’t be interesting anymore. While it would technically still be the same feature, there would be no meaning to it anymore.
It’s all about people.
Poking is a way of saying: “Hey, I haven’t forgotten about you! Let’s talk more at some point!”
This is something to keep in mind when creating content on the web, or even in Facebook. What finally gets the users isn’t the flashy graphical game you’d think but the simple nonsensical button that connects you with other people.
PS. This morning on my way to work, the grass was frozen. I guess it means that winter is coming to Finland once again.
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October 11th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I feel myself old… I first thought C-64 and poke/peek commands :-)
October 11th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Hehe. Those were the times… :)
POKE 53281,0
October 11th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
I’m having a hard time getting into the swing of Facebook. Maybe I’m too old but so far I haven’t found the value in it, either practically or socially. Maybe I’m not using it right, but other than throwing things at people or writing nonsense on their walls, I don’t seem to be getting the point. So my question to you is… am I missing something or is that all it is?
Or… am I just a lost cause?
October 11th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Hey Jeff, you know what? I felt exactly the same about a month or two ago when I really started using Facebook.
I still can’t explain very well, what Facebook really stands for, but I’m slowly starting to see more and more value in it.
To me what makes Facebook great is that it helps me connect and keep in touch with people without having to put too much effort in it. In a good sense. For example there are people that I don’t know that well yet, and Facebook gives me an easy way to get to know them better through wall posts and messaging.
Another thing is that I can send small notes to my closer friends: I’m usually quite busy and don’t have that much time to call people or send them longer messages. Through Facebook I can send a quick hi, or a poke to say that I haven’t forgotten about them. :)
And finally, it helps me get back in touch with people I haven’t seen for a long time. For example today two of my childhood friends added me as their friends on Facebook, which was great.
So, at least to me Facebook is something that keeps growing more and more important as I use it. I don’t find any value in all the different games, and most of the Facebook apps are just crap, but the basic functionality: getting in touch with people is what matters to me.
What about the rest of you? Do you find value in Facebook? And if you do, what is it?
October 12th, 2007 at 3:12 am
As a recent college graduate I have over 700 friends on facebook (99% of which I know in REAL LIFE) and love it. I see updates from current friends and even long lost friends and reminisce. I can drop a line to a friend I’ve missed and it’s so easy.
I have only poked in jest though, and rarely do my friends poke. No one I know thinks it’s very useful and when I get one I usually ignore it.
But poking is always good for a joke.
October 12th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
That’s good feedback. I suppose it’s a two-way street, and since I’m not being very proactive, I’m probably not getting much back in return either.
Ravi… what’s the secret to getting 700 friends linked up? How do you make initial contact to invite them in the first place?
October 13th, 2007 at 6:55 am
I’m enjoying Facebook, but I really don’t get poking. I think I crave interactions with more explicit meaning, like wall posts and messages, and status updates, if you can call them an interaction. When someone sends me a poke I just ignore it because it seems like a waste of time.
October 13th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
Ravi: 700 friends! Wow, that’s a lot :)
One thing I’ve noticed is that the value of Facebook grows when you get more of your friends to join it. But isn’t it hard to maintain a connection to over 700 friends?
And yeah, you’re right in the sense that poking isn’t useful. But for some reason many of my friends use it a lot. And I always poke back ;)
Jeff: Thanks for poking me at Facebook ;)
Tzaddi: That’s exactly what I thought before I started poking. Actually I still prefer wall posts and status updates over poking. But weirdly I’m also liking the poking feature…
February 17th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
How long does a “poke” notification stay on your home page? Is this the same if the person who pokes you has been a “friend” in your network since before the poke?