I'm a poking machine

I just got my ass on Facebook, and wow. It's a blast. Nearly every undergrad is on Facebook at this point, but I missed the boat by one year. I graduated in 2003, but Facebook was unleashed on all American college students in 2004. So, it's a crapshoot whether some of my classmates or older friends are on it. I already blogged about my experience with MySpace. Well this is much better. The interface is clean, efficient, and very snazzy. There is much less spam and worthless crap floating around. Plus, users aren't considered smart enough to mod their own pages (thus adding idiotic backgrounds, fonts, and music).

The best feature, however, is poking.

This is how you do it: you click "Poke X!" on X's page (or in a friend list). It just pops up as a poke on X's homepage. That's all there is to it. You can't add a message (other features allow you to send messages, post notes, comment on photos, etc.). I'm not sure why this feature was originally included, but it's amazing. I don't want to get too deep here, but it's truly a new form of communication. You can't send any information other than "I still exist, and I thought about you for some reason." How else could you do that in person or on the phone? There are ways, I'm sure, but they are all unnatural and will inadvertently carry additional information (like: I'm creepy). The Poked has no idea why the Poker was thinking about the Poked. Occasionally it's just because the Poker noticed that the Poked was signed on at the same time. In this case the transferred information is: "I noticed you were online while I was online. Oh right, I also still exist."

The cost of sending this limited information is quite low, as it should be. It may well be the most efficient (in terms of cost per amount of info) method of communication that we have.
The only drawback is that poking can get out of hand. My friend Meera and I have been involved in a poking war ever since I started on Facebook. But even this isn't such a big distraction. One cannot poke someone repeatedly. They can only poke again after the Poked has acknowledged the previous poke. At this point, the efficient information flow is stopped, but it's a small price to pay.

The second best feature is, of course, the news feed. If your friend uploaded new photos or added new friends, that information can be sent to you. When I added "the philosophical ramifications of lifting heavy zombies" as a new interest, all my friends instantly knew about it. Some people attack the feed as "stalkerish" or "pathetic", and I agree with them. But I still love it. If I could, I would poke it.

Facebookers: Feel free to add me! You're going to have to know my real name, of course.