Playing together online: reimagining interactions

Names are powerful; how we refer to an interaction influences our feelings about it. It sets the tone for the interaction.

One of Facebook’s brilliant strokes early on was the Poke. It wasn’t explained, but was a way to initiate contact with someone without saying anything. They could interpret and respond to the poke however they saw fit. They could have called it a tap, or a wave, or even creepily a tickle, but they chose poke — something a little childish but playful and potentially flirty — perfect for their early audience of college students.

What other tactile or multisensory interactions could be modeled virtually to enrich the ways we interact with people online? It’s fun to consider all the interactions we have in person versus online, and as Kening is doing here, imagine how online ones could draw on the rich experiences of life.

We don’t have to leave it to corporations to invent and name them; corporate Internet is boring because it’s constrained by what’s efficient in a slick interface where the goal is just enough engagement to keep you scrolling. The most fun part of BlueSky so far, from what I’ve heard, was the result of a bug: hellthreads that everyone wanted to jump into the dogpile together and be part of the fun. (That’s probably only safe to do in a small space, like invite-only BlueSky, but lbh the IndieWeb doesn’t have a size problem yet 😉) Threads sounds hollow and soulless. Every social media site wants to be a clone of each other. We don’t have to let corporate lack of creativity limit ways we interact online with our websites.*

*I understand there are challenges with adoption and support but I’m not letting technical limitations stop me from having fun brainstorming for now 😉

Emojis let us reply with symbols for clapping or solidarity, but it could be fun to have interactions even more diverse and interactive than emoji. I could go for a website to website fist bump or high five. Knock knock to double as greeting or cheesy joke? 😂 Tag you’re it could be handy. (I haven’t quite gotten where Kening’s headed with vibes but this is what my brain’s got for now 🤷‍♀️)

In honor of Send A Friend A Webmention Day, I’m going to close this post with a tally-ho! to David because I think it might entertain him, 😍 my jealousy of Pablo’s tlayudas (hadn’t heard of them before but they look delicious!), 👀 Park(ing) Day to Angelo, commiserate with Sara over the challenge of finding complementary reading buddies, psst James to nominate the word quagmire for his delectation, gush over Anthony’s highly pettable looking dog 🐶, and wave to Jacob who I haven’t talked to in a while.

Syndicated to IndieNews