only comments but never likes By Stephen House

i’m at an outside table of a bar that has cheap happy hour beer and is a good people-watching and poetry-writing spot / two young women at the table beside me are talking about another woman and it drifts into facebook / one says ‘have you noticed she never likes a facebook post but only comments’ / two says ‘yes’ and adds ‘i know a few people who do that shit and have no idea at all why’ / 

two goes to the bar to get gin and tonics while one starts scrolling on her phone / two returns / one puts her phone down and continues with the facebook thing / ‘it has to be because they don’t want to give you an extra like and add to your rep or they enjoy your post but dislike you or they hate the idea of likes in general or they forget to like though i tend to think it’s that they don’t want to add to your social-media rep’ / 

i’m sipping my beer and taking a few discreet notes and nodding a bit so gain control of my listening-in nod / two says ‘of course i never like her fucking stupid posts’ / i laugh and they look at me / one adds ‘neither do i’ / one smiles at me and i smile back and tell her i overheard them and find their facebook chat amusing / two says she noticed me laugh / and we talk a bit about only comments but never likes / 

and then one says they need to go to meet friends and they say goodbye / and as they walk off i hear one say ‘facebook is for old people anyway’ / and that makes me laugh and i wonder if old me alone in a bar listening in to a conversation about facebook stirred her to say that / and then a few people come to mind who only comment but never like my posts and i reflect on the girl’s reasons why and conclude it doesn’t mean much anyway / 

i appreciate a comment whether it includes a like or not / and i remind myself that while social-media is a part of life and can be entertaining and informative it’s best to not take it too seriously / i decide to grab another beer and write this facebook stuff down thanks to the inspiration from the gin and tonic girls and my notes taken while listening to them / and i already know i’ll call the piece ‘only comments but never likes’ //

Stephen House has won many awards and nominations as a poet, playwright, and actor. He’s been commissioned often, and had 20 plays produced, with many published by Australian Plays Transform. He’s received several international literature residencies from The Australia Council for the Arts, and an Asialink India literature residency. He’s had two chapbooks published by ICOE Press Australia: ‘real and unreal’ poetry and ‘The Ajoona Guest House’ monologue. His poetry is published often. His next book drops soon. He has performed his acclaimed monologues widely. Stephen’s play, ‘Johnny Chico’ ran in Spain for 4 years.