This is a perfect example of technology misunderstanding and misutilizing.
The “Like” button on blogs and Facebook is actually made available to enable common people to express their appreciation without always having had to say anything. It helps people maintain the distance of their connection, and maintain the audience to stay on topic. And like many developments of digital technology—with its directness and no filtering like conventional media—it is there to make transparency possible. So any attempt of manipulating it by telling people to “like” your post or “like” your page wouldn’t be right.
Secondly, like all technology, digital technology is there to make independence more possible. It is there to make life easier… Easier for people to pick what they want and unpick what they don’t want. We no longer have to receive email forwards of things we’re not interested to, those who want to share something only need to post it on their blog or Facebook wall (or tweet it) and let those who want to read about it to read further by clicking it, and allow those who don’t want to know more to continue their surf. No hard feelings, no need to say hi just for the sake of saying hi, no need to do anything unnecessary. Free, efficient and simple. So, to be brutally honest, telling people to “like” your post or “like” your photo is actually an invasion of their independence, of their space.
Sometimes I had been careless and tolerated it, though. It’s not right and it can send the wrong message, that’s why next time I’ll show no mercy. But BMW :-)
