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The Antisociality of Social Media Part 7: A Like By Any Other Name


"Liking" redirects here. For the psychological concept, see reciprocal liking.--Wikipedia


A funny thing happened while strolling through the cybersphere today. An email notification from LinkedIn appeared in my inbox informing me that one of my connections endorsed me for five skills. This isn't so atypical. I can honestly say that I am adept at each of the skills for which I was endorsed. The problem is that I have no idea how this particular person could say with any confidence that I am adept at each of the skills for which I was endorsed. The fact is that I simply cannot remember how I met this connection.



Was this a connection of a connection? Was it through one of those business-card-swaporamas otherwise known as a networking event? I'm sure this was a colleague of so-and-so. No. That can't be it. Grrrrrr. Where did I meet this person? Does this endorsement carry any real weight?

Never mind. I just wasted far too much brain energy trying to figure that out. The thing that really impressed me was that LinkedIn has inserted another form of the "like" into our repertoire of likes. With so much liking going on nowadays, I fear, dear reader, that our liking will become diluted to the point of being deluded. Even worse, overuse of the like will turn us into virtual valley girls, which could change the meaning of like altogether. Even-even worse, the like will you know, like, fail to have any meaning whatsoever.

There's only one thing we can do to save the like--time for some synonyms.


The "like" synonome as diagrammed by visualthesaurus.com
It used to be customary to dive into the Roget's Thesaurus when in need of a synonym. Those days are gone now that we have the Google. Keying in "like" for the search term will generate over 11 billion--yes, that's with a "b"--hits, with the top return taking you to this page explaining "Built-in Like action." Perhaps it is the fact that I am writing this at 2:30 in the morning, but that just sounds so likable in a you-shouldn't-be-liking-that sort of way.

But I digress. Again.

Anywho, the next few hits are your typical dictionary fare. Surprisingly, there is a Wikipedia page for like--the Wikilike? Oh, Wiki likey the like. For added squirrel bonus, hit the "Talk" tab on the Wiki-like page. You won't dislike it.

While Wiki is useful and all, you might be inclined to go straight to the 3rd or 4th hits, to the likes of thesaurus.com and merriam-webster.com, where you can meander through all sorts of likes and words like like. You will likely come across a link for the online tool visualthesaurus.com, much like what is represented in the figure above. While that tool is wicked cool and very, very, very likable, it kicks you out after a few spins around the block and requests that you register. Thanks, but no thanks. I like my likes for free.

It does give a great graphical and interactive overview of related terms, though. The synonyms linked to like in the figure are pretty vanilla. Love is a stretch, since that implies liking beyond liking-liking. The word that got my head scratching was cotton. Huh? I cotton that? Well, yes, apparently, "cotton to" is synonymous with "compatible" or, in our case "like." Wow. The stuff you learn at 2:30 in the morning.

I would recommend, dear reader, that you save yourselves some disapproving glances, and take a safe stroll through the more common, but a tad bit more fancy, synonyms for like as noted here: http://thesaurus.com/browse/like. Please bear with me while I sojourn on variations of like. You might find me affirming, or acclaiming, or fancying, or favoring, or idolizing, or revering, venerating or even worshiping, that which I find likable. In turn, I challenge you to find the like that you can cling to, dote on, embrace, foster, honor, value...oh cripes, just like it!







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