Basic Facebook Guide: poking a friend on fb

Whats A facebook Poke

What Does Poke Mean on Facebook? It's Complicated

So, you got “poked” by someone on Facebook—now what? A Facebook poke is a feature on the social media platform that lets users send a single virtual notification to a friend. No more, no less. Despite the feature’s name, the purpose of a poke has never been entirely clear. While poking was all the rage in 2007, it’s worth noting that its popularity has significantly declined on Facebook over the past few years. In 2011, the feature officially went into hiding on the site as part of a series of functionality updates.

In the younger days of Facebook, a poke was a cute and timid (though ineffective) way to virtually flirt or just say hello. Today, pokes still exist but it’s hardly straightforward: Receiving a casual poke from your grandmother and your crush in the same day can leave you with bizarre mixed messages.

Still confused as to why someone would poke you on Facebook, or what it could mean? Here are all your Facebook poke questions, answered.

What does Poke mean on Facebook?

Essentially, a poke is the same as a like, with a much more ambiguous purpose.

According to Urban Dictionary, a poke “allows users to say ‘hello’ to or show interest in a friend without having to go through the tedious process of crafting coherent sentences.” Basically, a Poke means someone is trying to get your attention, flood your notifications just for fun, or find an excuse to flirt.

Related Posts:

An early Facebook FAQ page read, “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.”

Whether or not you find a poke sweet, unimpressive, or creepy is entirely up to you. Although if you’ve frequented Facebook a lot in the past year, sometimes it’s nice to have a wordless interaction void of any rants or political commentary.

Blog Archive