I'd Like to Like Your Post, But...
I have a smart-arse phone. It's not a phone designed for a smart-arse, just in case there's any confusion, but one that behaves in a mischievous antagonistic way, which suggests that it takes pleasure in mocking my cognitive/spatial ineptitude.
The like button is really really tiny. Super small. Like, barely there at all.
If I try to press it without first zooming in, I invariably hit the bookmark button, or the multi quote button, or if someone else has liked the post before me, then the "3 others," button. Once or twice, I've even hit "report." Oops!
When this happens, I have to close the screen that appears after hitting the wrong button, and try again.
It wears me down, ya know... I thought I had dainty fingers until I got this phone. Piano player's fingers. Or ukelele, at least. Silly me.
The only way to overcome this problem is to hit the zoom button. Make the buttons bigger, so they're harder for my inept self to miss. Sounds like a cunning plan, right? That action, however, comes with it's own unique set of issues.
I'm not sure if this is something that happens on every cell phone, or just the cheap ones, but my zoom button isn't a constant.
I wait for it to appear. When I spot it, my brain relays the message to my finger that it has blessed us with its presence, but by the time my finger is ready to make contact with the screen, the zoom function has invariably disappeared again.
Unfortunately, my brain doesn't compose itself in time to alert my finger that a retreat is in order, so I end up hitting whatever was underneath the zoom button.
Sometimes it's the reply button, which takes me to the bottom of the page. Groan. I then have to click out of that and scroll back up to the post I was trying to like - if I can find it again.
On a small screen where you can't see the entire page, just a few paragraphs, that is decidedly tricky. Especially if you can't remember who wrote the post.
Or if you can remember, so you think you have their avatar to guide you, but it turns out that that person has written multiple posts on one page.
On other occasions, my failure to hit the zoom button means I end up accidentally clicking on someone's profile instead, or a link someone has posted. Then I have to close these, and try again...
If I somehow do get to the zoom button before it vanishes, a significant amount of time has usually passed by that stage, and being confronted by giant sized words, I find myself unable to remember which post I was trying to like in the first place. So then I have to zoom out again, and reread again...
Sometimes, if I see three posts in a row that I want to like, and if I've managed to hit the zoom button, I can stay zoomed in, and just scroll down. (Easy in the bird/nature threads as there are pictures to guide my fingers.)
Those little successes don't happen very often though. There are only so many times in a row one can battle with the zoom button before zoom gloom sets in...
Then I get this deluded idea in my head that I don't really need to enlarge the screen after all because my fingers aren't that big, and I'm sure I could hit that like button if I'm just...like...extra careful...
Once in a while, something unexpected happens. I actually manage to hit the like button first try! Yay! At least, I think I've hit it, but my hit doesn't seem to register, so I impatiently hit it again.
Then I discover that my first hit did actually hit the target after all, but my second hit undid the first hit, so I end up unliking someone's post. Arghhh...
Then I have to scroll back up to reload the page to see whether I need to try to like it again. I don't know if an alert gets sent when someone "unlikes" a post, but I don't want to risk giving anyone a complex when I actually appreciate what they have written. Good grief.
Aside from these technical issues, there is the guilt factor as well, to consider. If I read multiple likeable posts in one thread, but just don't have the energy molecules to engage in this ridiculous button chasing ritual, I just can't like any. It seems unfair to leave some posts unliked.
Just to further complicate matters... I had to temporarily use a different browser on my phone recently, as the old one wouldn't load the pages properly, but guess what...it was worse, because there wasn't even a zoom button! How is that supposed to work? Other than not very well... I don't like it one bit...
To all of the people on PR who have written intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, witty, kind, or heartbreaking posts that have resonated with me, but that I haven't managed to officially like -
I'd like to like your likeable post, but I've just got "like" fatigue...
(And a smart-arse phone, and a dumb-arse brain...)
I have a smart-arse phone. It's not a phone designed for a smart-arse, just in case there's any confusion, but one that behaves in a mischievous antagonistic way, which suggests that it takes pleasure in mocking my cognitive/spatial ineptitude.
The like button is really really tiny. Super small. Like, barely there at all.
If I try to press it without first zooming in, I invariably hit the bookmark button, or the multi quote button, or if someone else has liked the post before me, then the "3 others," button. Once or twice, I've even hit "report." Oops!
When this happens, I have to close the screen that appears after hitting the wrong button, and try again.
It wears me down, ya know... I thought I had dainty fingers until I got this phone. Piano player's fingers. Or ukelele, at least. Silly me.
The only way to overcome this problem is to hit the zoom button. Make the buttons bigger, so they're harder for my inept self to miss. Sounds like a cunning plan, right? That action, however, comes with it's own unique set of issues.
I'm not sure if this is something that happens on every cell phone, or just the cheap ones, but my zoom button isn't a constant.
I wait for it to appear. When I spot it, my brain relays the message to my finger that it has blessed us with its presence, but by the time my finger is ready to make contact with the screen, the zoom function has invariably disappeared again.
Unfortunately, my brain doesn't compose itself in time to alert my finger that a retreat is in order, so I end up hitting whatever was underneath the zoom button.
Sometimes it's the reply button, which takes me to the bottom of the page. Groan. I then have to click out of that and scroll back up to the post I was trying to like - if I can find it again.
On a small screen where you can't see the entire page, just a few paragraphs, that is decidedly tricky. Especially if you can't remember who wrote the post.
Or if you can remember, so you think you have their avatar to guide you, but it turns out that that person has written multiple posts on one page.
On other occasions, my failure to hit the zoom button means I end up accidentally clicking on someone's profile instead, or a link someone has posted. Then I have to close these, and try again...
If I somehow do get to the zoom button before it vanishes, a significant amount of time has usually passed by that stage, and being confronted by giant sized words, I find myself unable to remember which post I was trying to like in the first place. So then I have to zoom out again, and reread again...
Sometimes, if I see three posts in a row that I want to like, and if I've managed to hit the zoom button, I can stay zoomed in, and just scroll down. (Easy in the bird/nature threads as there are pictures to guide my fingers.)
Those little successes don't happen very often though. There are only so many times in a row one can battle with the zoom button before zoom gloom sets in...
Then I get this deluded idea in my head that I don't really need to enlarge the screen after all because my fingers aren't that big, and I'm sure I could hit that like button if I'm just...like...extra careful...
Once in a while, something unexpected happens. I actually manage to hit the like button first try! Yay! At least, I think I've hit it, but my hit doesn't seem to register, so I impatiently hit it again.
Then I discover that my first hit did actually hit the target after all, but my second hit undid the first hit, so I end up unliking someone's post. Arghhh...
Then I have to scroll back up to reload the page to see whether I need to try to like it again. I don't know if an alert gets sent when someone "unlikes" a post, but I don't want to risk giving anyone a complex when I actually appreciate what they have written. Good grief.
Aside from these technical issues, there is the guilt factor as well, to consider. If I read multiple likeable posts in one thread, but just don't have the energy molecules to engage in this ridiculous button chasing ritual, I just can't like any. It seems unfair to leave some posts unliked.
Just to further complicate matters... I had to temporarily use a different browser on my phone recently, as the old one wouldn't load the pages properly, but guess what...it was worse, because there wasn't even a zoom button! How is that supposed to work? Other than not very well... I don't like it one bit...
To all of the people on PR who have written intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, witty, kind, or heartbreaking posts that have resonated with me, but that I haven't managed to officially like -
I'd like to like your likeable post, but I've just got "like" fatigue...
(And a smart-arse phone, and a dumb-arse brain...)
