Is a Facebook poke just a hello, or could the poke mean something more?

Last week, I received a wall posting on Facebook from my friend Nicole which said “U poker!!” For a second, I thought she meant something about the card game of poker, but then I finally realized it was because I had poked her the night before. In my state of drunkenness, I must have gone to her profile and clicked “Poke Nicole” underneath her profile picture.

But what does it really mean to poke someone on Facebook?

I went around surveying my “popular” and active friends on Facebook, you know, the ones with 600 or more friends and leave status updates every 5 minutes. So this is what they came up with:

• A poke is mostly “just like an attention thing.” Like if I were to walk up to you and physically poke you. Poking someone lets him or her know that you are thinking about them or just wanting to say “hello” without having to write on their wall.
• It can be considered a form of flirting. Just like in grade school when you poked the person you had a crush on. Nobody else sees the poke but you and the other person so it’s kept secret, unlike a wall posting.

I’ve also heard that poking lets you view the other person’s profile for a week, but that may have been an older feature because now you’re only allowed to poke friends. And that wouldn’t make sense because friends can already see your profile.

Poking someone on Facebook can be interpreted differently from many people, ranging from just a hello to I want to hook up with you. Poke your friends on Facebook today and see how they react!