Likes.

The meaning of like is already lost as time passes. Especially if you're from my generation and later on, if you mentioned the word 'like' it's probably the thumbs up button on Facebook. And to make things worse, some people don't even like what they 'like' anymore.

I think the worst is there are people who are fishing for likes. 

Well, I guess it's only normal for people to try and keep themselves updated with the latest trends and stuffs, and a lot of restaurants and stores even have their own Facebook pages. There are many times I have come across stores (especially the new ones) where they paste a big Facebook thumbs up icon on the walls with words like 'Like us!' on it.

If you're happen to be satisfied with let's say, the food of a restaurant or the product of some store, sure you'll like the fan page but I'm sure there's not many people who will remember and are willing to let the stores flood their timelines with things about their stores.

Meanwhile, there are people who just wants likes. They'll do anything for likes. I don't know, then don't bother if people really like their pages or not, they'll just spam your inbox, flood your wall and promoting their pages. I admit, I am annoyed by these people. Many times, I have ignored them because I really do not like their pages or what activities they are doing.

I was really pissed off when AuditionSEA once stated that they'll only release Beat Up Arena if they have gathered enough followers in Twitter. When we failed at the first attempt, they bought things to Facebook and begged for likes. Like seriously, there are players who have waited years for the arena and you're torturing us because you don't have enough likes. It seemed like the number of likes weigh heavier than the satisfaction of the players.

There are even posts like '1,000,000 likes and girlfriend will marry me' or 'Like if you love potato, ignore and you're gay'. Seriously .. And your likes can't save the poor people in Africa or a child from a heart disease.

To make matters worse, there are competitions that decides winners based on the numbers of likes. It is no longer a contest, it's just a competition of getting the most likes in the shortest amount of time. Most of the time, it doesn't matter if you don't have skills and more, you'll just need a lot of Facebook friends.

For an example, there's a photography contest on Facebook. The title of the contest is 'The Most Beautiful Moment', but they decide who wins the grand prize with the number of likes on their photo. If a skilled photographer submits his best work on the page, you'll probably think, 'Oh, that's nice, I'll give him a like.' Then people who really appreciates photography will give him support and he will win the prize because he really deserves it because he has the skill.

But that was never the case, contest based on Facebook likes were never fair.

Then, came another rival who submits an 'okay' photo. But that 'okay' rival has 5,000 Facebook friends and messaged all his friends to like his photo. And most of the time, they'll like the photo just to stop him from messaging them any further. And I bet most of them don't even know what's the competition about, they just don't care.

I say I don't support contests like these but just lately I was exactly in their situation. I had to fish for likes to win, and I must say, I felt terrible begging people to like my photo. But I wanted to win, so I had to suck it up and disturb people who probably don't care about it. But I did win a prize in the end, so I'll say everyone's effort is not wasted.

I'm actually not proud to say that I have won because what I won wasn't real and sadly, it's not indefinite. And my prizes are chosen by AuditionSEA's GM, not me. That particular GM has no taste at all ... I just wanted the Pink Star Guitar, actually.

LOOK AT THOSE SHOES, THEY DON'T MATCH AT ALL LOL.

But yeah, it was never winners winning because of their skills, but winners winning because they have more friends and support and they are thick-skinned enough to go asking around for likes. But is it really worth it?

Actually, I think Facebook began as a social media to connect with the people in your life, but turned out to be a place for just people to give likes. And to me, the choice of people giving their likes to is really weird nowadays.

They are many different people in Facebook, I'll like to separate them as the 'normal people' and the 'attention-seeking people'. And both of them are just like how their names sound like. I'm sure if you're around my age, you'll surely have these people in your friend list.

The 'normal people' are just ordinary people, using Facebook to chat with their friend, occasionally posting up pictures for a special occasion like birthday parties and weddings. Sometimes they might travel to another country and comment on how the weather is like at different place. Or they will post quotes, opinions and experiences to inspire people in their everyday life.

I do like these people because they are using Facebook correctly. And if I do like their updates, I'll never hesitate to give them a thumbs up. Sometimes I have friends who shared life lessons and it's just nice to just take a look.

Then there are the 'attention-seeking people'. I have a lot of people like these in my timeline and they annoy the crap out of me. Actually, I have mentioned this plenty of times in my blog so I'll just shut up. While they're using their Facebook 24/7 efficiently, I think three quarter of the time, it's just spam, spam, spam. Do people really care if you had Starbucks in the morning!? No.

And guess where are the likes given to? Yes, the second category has more likes. And it is realllly obvious that people are giving to likes to popular, pretty girls or good looking guys. It's just fact, and there's nothing we can do about it.

I went overboard.

I have nothing against these people, because it is their choice to click their mouse on the like button. But it just makes me wonder, what are on the mind of these people who are liking status, updates, photos that serve no purposes.

Well, I don't update my Facebook much but silently, I'm scrolling and looking at everyone. Most of the time when I update I try to make posts interesting rather than what people will usually do. At least random crap is better than photos of your outfit.

Maybe in the future people will go like, 'I Facebook like you' just to not confuse with the real meaning of like and the thumbs up icon.

---

Do I call it an evolution, or do I become another different person.