Facebook has made minor adjustments to its poking tool to revive the old poke war experience for its 20th anniversary.
If you’re unfamiliar with this, you could poke your friends on Facebook until the other person gave up poking you.
Poking dates back to the platform's launch on February 4, 2004. However, it was tucked away in settings after losing popularity in about 2014.
Now Business Insider has reported that Facebook’s parent company Meta made a design tweak in early 2024 to make the poke button more visible.
MailOnline reported that this appears on the button next to any name a Facebook user searches for on the social media platform.
Meta says poking has consequently increased by 1,300 per cent.
It said 50 per cent of pokes originated from users aged between 18 and 29 — who would never have used the button before.
A Facebook post from founder Mark Zuckerberg more than 10 years ago said of the tool’s function: “We thought it would be fun to make a feature that has no specific purpose. So mess around with it, because you’re not getting an explanation from us.”
While Generation Z may have missed the first poking wave when the feature was introduced, it has been prolifically using other areas of Facebook such as its Marketplace.
The New York Times said the Marketplace had gained popularity among a generation that loves to shop secondhand and is environmentally conscientious.
Data from Ignite Social Media in October 2023 showed that Facebook ranked as Gen Z’s fourth most popular social media site.
Zuckerberg and his college roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, launched Facebook from their Harvard University dormitory.
Originally called "TheFacebook," it began as a social networking platform exclusively for Harvard students. It expanded to other Ivy League universities and eventually to the general public.
