A recent BBC online article brought to reader’s attention an Israeli baby named ‘Like’ by her parents due to a sudden burst of inspiration from the Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook feature of ‘like’-ing.
Lior Adler, the father, is quoted as saying that name is original and innovative. It is beyond comprehension that ‘Like’ is the most original name to spring to mind and speaks volumes to the depth of modern creativity and the infiltration of Facebook in society and culture.
Reading the article with where a proper name should be supplanted with ‘Like’ is unsettlingly akin to listening to a prepubescent urban chav attempting to form words to converse with others… ‘Like, you know, like…’
We’ve all heard of names that are deemed to be quintessentially American such as Brad and Chad and stereotypical names that pertain to certain countries such as the name Lars and Olga in Germany but a name that is exclusively Facebook-typical is almost laughable.
Worryingly Adler asserts, unfathomably, that he ‘checked’ and that no one in Israel has the same name; because everyone in Israel knows one another. Perhaps Adler ‘checked in’ at the hospital when ‘Like’ was born, just so everyone knew and didn’t panic.
Frankly the concept of naming anything after Facebook, let alone a child, really heralds the commencement of the ‘Zuckerbergian’ invasion of the world, the digital world was clearly not enough for the social networking entrepreneur, so the minds and names of civilians is a nice next step into the physical.
It marks a sad day when the Hitler of social networking is your inspiration and creates a wholly new and problematic culture of digital socialising problems.
Indeed, the Alder couple may upload pictures of ‘Like’ and ironically have them liked by friends and followers but now, due to sinister copyright law, that picture is now owned by Zuckerberg.
This begs the question to why Zuckerberg hasn’t embroiled himself in yet another legal battle over the ownership of ‘Like’, indeed he created it so why shouldn’t baby ‘Like’ be his?
