The poke is a feature of Facebook whose sole purpose is to attract the attention of another user. The only thing that happens when you poke someone is that this person receives a poke alert on his or her home page. Users can only poke a confirmed friend, someone in a shared network, or a friend of a friend.
As pokes attract the attention of a user, they can be used for various different things and thus have different meanings. You can, for instance, poke a friend just as a way of saying “Hello.”
The poke alert you receive when you are poked is just a poke icon with a message that says, “You were poked by,” and the name of the poker. It also has an option to “Remove Poke” and another one to “Poke Back.” Using this last option, sometimes people have “poke wars,” in which they keep virtually poking each other until someone gives up.
Doesn't sound funny, but that’s what people do.
Related article:
How to Use Facebook >> Knowing the Facebook Features >> What is a Poke on Facebook?
