If You Like Something, Please Like It

I am friends with someone who occasionally surfs through the Facebook timeline only for the sake of liking the stray posting updates of friends who have posted but received no likes.  Even as I wrote the sentence above, I realized that only 9 short years ago that sentence would have been utterly abstract and meaningless. But, at present, over 1 billion people regularly light up the Facebook screen around the globe, and those doing so will fully comprehend what I have written.

Considering that the world population is hovering at about 7 billion, the figure of 1 billion necessarily means that 1 in 7 people around the globe like other people through Facebook.   That is no small number when you consider that if Facebook were a child, you would not allow that child to drive a motor vehicle for another 6 years.  

Facebook is barely out of infancy.

The figure of 1 million Facebook users is similarly impressive when you consider that most international health organizations estimate that something near 2.8 billion people still lack indoor plumbing and somewhere near 1.5 billion live without electricity.

Now, back to liking lonely posts on the timeline.  My friend’s efforts to like the occasional lonely post is a wholly tender 21^st century equivalent to taking in a stray kitten to feed it a little milk—a gesture to be admired.   At present, on the opposite end of this scale, the most liked photo on Facebook is a photograph of President Obama embracing Michelle following his election win last fall.  Within only a few days, the photo generated well over 3 million likes.  Justin Bieber and Family Guy (the cartoon) reside firmly in the top 10 for likes.  I have single-handedly been trying to elevate a certain woman from Hawaii with a flurry of likes each morning when I wake to her nightly posts. 

This liking is serious business.  Facebook “went public,” as they say in the shadows of Wall Street, in May of 2012.  Within the initial 30 seconds of public trading, some 82 million Facebook shares sold on Nasdaq.  Not bad for a company that started out as a network tinker-toy with no obvious means to generate revenue. 

At present, somewhere in the vicinity of 2.7 billion likes are generated every day on Facebook.  Millions upon millions of photos are streamed upward to the screen.  The Facebook timeline has become our new town square.  We trade and share our lives openly there—businesses included.  If you really like something, say, a photo of two turtles making love posted by someone, you can like and share it with other friends with the tap of a key.

Yep, there is a Facebook button for sharing, too.  

If you liked this blog, please like it and share if for me—using the little button below, not the big thumb posted above!

--Mitchell Hegman