A poke has gained new meaning after the popularity of Facebook. If you have a Facebook account, you mostly likely are aware of the poke feature. If not, you can just check out Facebook's long list of questions and answers about the poke feature, which, to me, essentially seems pointless. It's kind of random and funny but it serves no real purose. Awhile back, the application SuperPoke! became popular on Facebook. It was like a poke except that you had to add the application and there were way more random things to do to your friends other than poking. For example, you could dance with your friends, throw random objects at your friends, or even high fiiiive your friends. It's a virtual way of doing things with your friends without having to actually do them.
Back to the simple poke feature: What seems like an innocent gesture caused a Tennesse woman to be arrested for violating a protective order against her by poking the person who had the order against her. It's being determined if the poke was done by her from her computer or by a hacker. It's also being determined whether or not it was an imposter's site that did the poking. I don't really know what to say about this. Is a Facebook poke a violation of a protective order? I found the legal definition of it and one thing it said on there that caught my attention is that usually protective orders have a specified distance one party must stay away from the other party. But what about "virtual distances"? With the growth of social media, does that need to be considered in writing laws like this? According to the original news article, a poke is still a form of communication. What do you think? Should this woman have been arrested? Was a poke a violation of the protective order? Should it be?
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I really know exactly what to think about that situation. I do not think it needed to go as far as the woman being arrested though. A poke is kind of pointless, but sometimes people take it too far because they have a misunderstanding of what the poke means. It also, depends on who the poke it from. For instance, if it is someone you do not really get along with then you may take it a different way than if it was from someone you liked. I think there needs to be regulations written somewhere for the safety of facebook just so everyone cannot sue them for having people poking them.
ReplyDeleteWhat did the woman do to warrant her protective order? Is she some sort of stalker? This is very strange that the fact that she poked this person is a problem, because if this person was truly against her going on their Facebook page, why don't they just block her? I don't know all the details, but I don't think she should have been arrested. It wasn't like she was writing threatening things on the person's wall.
ReplyDeleteI don't poke people on Facebook and usually just send them a message. There's less to misinterpret that way.
Wow, I guess this story should not surprise me, but it does. I don't understand how a poke can be an offense worth arresting somebody over. I understand cyber bullying and how that can affect a person's livelihood. But just a poke? I realize they can be annoying, but arresting the woman seems to be taking it too far. I'm guessing more stories like this will come in the future as Facebook and other social media become a more prominent means of communicating with and ticking off other people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kayley. If this person she supposedly poked really wanted her to stay away and block all communication, then she should have blocked her from Facebook. It makes no sense whatsoever that she would continue to have her as a friend on Facebook if she had a restraining order against her. I think this will likely be a primary argument by this woman's defense attorney.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, I do see how a poke from someone could be offensive or intimidating. I can think of someone that would cause me great distress if suddenly out of the blue, they poked me. But again, I don't think it's even possible because they are not on my friend list and if they ever requested that, I'd ignore it.