Each morning I wake up, grab a cup of coffee and scroll down through the newsfeed of my Facebook app while I cook my children their breakfast. I see happiness, sadness, anger and more happiness shared by others. I watch as the “likes” on their status updates increase, some get over 100 likes with maybe 2 comments. I thought about that; are we too busy to pause and take a moment to leave a comment with our Facebook friends? These are people we chose to connect with, have a Facebook friendship with or maybe even are friends in real life with. Do these people not deserve us to take the time to leave a genuine comment?
I have read a few articles from other people who did an experiment, they did nothing but leave comments on their friends updates. There was no like button pressed for a period of time and the ads on their Facebook wall nearly disappeared, there were no more animal rescue ads because they liked their friends update about a pet. There were no off the wall ads based on them liking a friend’s status update on other subject matter. Facebook looked completely different to them once they started leaving comments versus clicking the like button.
My mission was a little different; as I saw so many people like updates on Facebook versus leaving a genuine comment, I realized we are not only losing human interaction because of social media, we are losing it because few are using social media to actually interact. I don’t want to lose the human interactions, be it online or in person, I enjoy being there for my friends. I know a comment on one of my updates makes me smile more than someone who clicked like. Sure some of my updates get an amazing level of “likes”, however, comments are usually few and far between. That is until I started to take the time to comment and engage my friends; now I see many more comments per status/photo update on Facebook and thus my mission was complete: To gain human interaction via social media.
Why do I comment on your Facebook update instead of just liking it?
The answer is simple; because I care about my Facebook friends, their updates mean something to me, whether I can relate to what they are going through or can feel their happiness in their update; I want them to know that I care. I leave a comment {and sometimes a like too} because I care. Each morning while scrolling down through my newsfeed, I do my best to leave my Facebook friends a comment on their updates because I want them to know that I am a real person who believes in human interaction, compassion, empathy and friends regardless of it being online or in real life.
Will you try to comment more on Facebook or continue to simply click that little like button?
This makes so much sense! I confess that sometimes I’m guilty of not leaving a comment because I don’t want to get hit with 40 notifications. I will do better! Thanks for sharing your genuine thoughts. You’re a sweet friend 🙂
This totally makes sense. Thanks for caring.
I like the idea of this and certainly will think a little more than just liking a post, but sharing and relating with others on a personal level.
That makes perfect sense. Sometimes I just blow through my feed quickly and like something so that the person knows I saw it, but I think I will spend more time commenting 🙂
That is so true and I never really thought about it. I am going to add leaving comments on FB to my list of New Year’s Resolutions. Thanks for calling it to my attention.
How thoughtful of you! I try my best to leave comments on friend’s posts as well. It shows that you care and it’s more personal than just a “like”.
This definitely makes sense. Taking the extra time to leave a comment is really worth it.
For me, it’s whether I’m mobile or not. If I’m mobile, it’s harder to comment so I like more than comment. If I’m on my desktop, I’ll comment more often. I’ll try to comment more in general though. 🙂
You have a great point! Leaving a comment is real communication, whereas a LIKE is just like a drive-by wave. Granted, sometimes I LIKE something because I don’t actually have a comment but want to let them know I saw something.
I need to be better at leaving comments. :/ Sometimes the threads take so much time. I think I need to do less of them and spend a little more time on each one!
This make sense! I also worry about all the notifications after making a comment.
Awe you are so sweet, I need to have your attitude. Sometimes I rush through that I do not take time to smell the roses.
I love this idea! It’s so easy to quickly scan Facebook, like, and go on with your day. Commenting more is a great idea. 🙂