The Pragmatic Functions of Facebook Likes on Status Updates: Evidence from User Perceptions

This paper examines the pragmatic functions of the like button when users interact with status-updates on Facebook. To collect the data, the researcher asked a friend who happened to be a university professor to write a post on his Facebook account in which he requested his students, colleagues and friends to report to him in a comment when each of them tends to press the like button on a status and for what purpose. The total number of the collected comments is 218. Analysis of the data reveals that in the Jordanian context, the like button is not solely used to show appreciation as originally envisaged by Facebook. Further, the findings indicate that the use of the like button has eventually developed as a graphic pragmatic marker with eight functions and illocutions ranging in purpose from showing unreserved approval and admiration of content to showing mockery of published content. Keywords: Computer-Mediated Communication; Emojis, Gestures; Like; Pragmatic Functions.