What does it mean to "like" something on Facebook?
For those of you unfamiliar with Facebook and its various tools and tricks, when one FB friend enjoys another FB friend's status update or a random comment to said status update or a picture of the Twin Towers with a halo on top, he--or she even!--is afforded the opportunity of "Liking" that update, comment, or photograph. It is as simple as clicking a button. Once clicked, everyone on Facebook knows that you received a momentary jolt of enjoyment from the experience.
I "Like" things on Facebook for a variety of reasons:
1) to agree with the sentiment expressed in a status update or comment
2) to assure a friend that I enjoyed his or her comment on my own status update.
3) to make my aunts feel good about themselves
4) to express my enjoyment of pictures featuring babies making weird faces, fried food of any kind, and/or Jesus riding upon/snuggling a dinosaur
I've never considered the feelings of the people whose comments I have failed to "Like" before. I've never done so, because I genuinely don't care. Anyone bothered by my refusal to "Like" something they've scrawled on my FB Wall uninvited, needs to take a good, hard look at themselves in the mirror and figure out what's gone wrong in his or her life. Listen, your comments are fine, OK? What, I need to "Like" everyting now? Doesn't mean I don't like you in real life. In fact, I prefer the real life you to the FB you. The real life you isn't gonna get all pissy when I don't laugh at a joke or say something about your shoes, is he? Or she? I'm not talking about anybody specific. I'm just saying, sometimes I hear things. If a time ever comes when I feel like I have to "Like" every little comment some half-friend or relative I never see or person from high school I never said two words to ever makes, that is the time I am officially abandoning the good ship Facebook. Seriously. I'll be out.
People aren't required to "Like" every single thing you say/write. Believe me, I wish they were sometimes, but it just isn't so. I'm talking to you, Benito Apolinar:
A 36-year-old Texas man has pleaded not guilty to battery charges after allegedly attacking his estranged wife for failing to "Like" a status update he posted to Facebook.
Benito Apolinar had posted an update to his Facebook page about the anniversary of his mother's death. Angry that the post had elicited no response from his wife of 15 years, he confronted her after dropping off their children at her home in Carlsbad, New Mexico on Tuesday.
What?
"That's amazing everyone 'Likes' my status but you, you're my wife. You should be the first one to 'Like' my status," he allegedly told her before punching her in the cheek and pulling her hair. He was reportedly under the influence of alcohol at the time.
One, your wife was probably gonna sit down with you later and listen to you cry over and reminisce about your mom, dude. You put the kids to bed, you sit together on the couch, and you have a little storytelling sesh. That's what we did after my grandmother's funeral. We went back to her house and told stories for hours. It was great. We didn't post shit on Facebook and wait for each other to "Like" it. We had a face-to-face discussion, like adults do, with nary a computer in sight. I did ask my brother-in-law to call my cellphone so everyone could hear my "Space Olympics" ringtone. That's what normal people do after a church luncheon honoring their grandmother's life, right?
Two, according to the article, Benito, you were dropping your kids off at the house, which leads me to assume that you were driving in a vehicle of some kind, alledgedly drunk. That's the way to make your dead mother proud: driving drunk with your kids in the car and slapping around your wife.
You're a dick, Benito, and there is no place for dicks on Facebook. Take that shit to Twitter.
