In June 2010, Facebook rolled out a new feature that seemed like an innocuous upgrade to an already existing, wildly popular feature i.e. the ‘like’. It was an extension of the same, which would now give users the ability to like individual comments on status updates and media. Mind you, nothing about it was original — it was an idea that had been in place since the World Wide Web was nothing but a collection of message boards.
However, it is my theory that this is the moment that significantly changed our Facebook interactions, bringing in the anxieties and the rewards of the real world on to our timelines. And since Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, it has had the largest impact on our online lives.
There are several layers to our interactions with people. The first, most obvious layer is what we’re actually saying to each other. Naturally, in several cases, what we say out loud is not necessarily in line with what we may think or believe. The second layer, especially in public forums like Facebook, often involves subtly editing or packaging what we say for the benefit of the onlooker. This may be done either to elicit a reaction from them or to maintain a certain perception.
I remember the first time I saw this feature, when I got a number of notifications for a joke comment I left on a photograph posted by a friend. It’s a rush many of us have probably felt. Sometimes it’s a race to be the wittiest or smart-Alec-iest person on the thread. On other occasions, especially when commenting on serious posts related to serious news, we tend to try and win the ‘debate’ — in practice, there’s no such thing — taking place in the comments section. On still other occasions, such as when reacting to personal news (a new relationship, a break-up, the birth of a child, a death of a loved one), some of us try and go beyond the stock congratulatory messages to leave a message whose purpose is, really, to show to everyone your relationship with the original poster. If not, you could simply leave the message, and a ‘like’ from the friend you wished indicates that they’ve read your message and you’ve done your job, thank you very much.
Where this fundamentally starts differing from real-life interactions is where said ‘likes’ — which only recently expanded to include the various emoji-based reactions denoting ‘Love’, ‘Angry’, ‘Sad’, ‘Haha’, and ‘Shocked’ — come from. Real-life interactions are challenged by geography and daily schedules. Before Facebook, you’d have no way of knowing what your college room-mate’s views on demonetisation were unless the two of you actually spoke. Even with Facebook, unless you explicitly pinged them on chat or came across a status/post they’d put up, you’d never know where they stand, or if they stand for something.
But with the Facebook comment like, this changed, and the breakdown of geographical barriers added an additional dimension. Now, for the first time in human history, you get to be witty, glib, pithy, serious, concise, astute, emotional in any conversation, and Facebook provides you with an audience that has the ability to give you instantaneous feedback. As with all such mechanisms, it helps forge new connections and, perhaps, aids in the destruction of older ones.
Suprateek Chatterjee is a Mumbai-based freelance journalist who writes on film, music and popular culture, and tweets at @SupraMario
