Every time somebody sends me a thumb I take it as “whatever you say you fucking dumbass” and it pisses me off.
And ya, I’m aware that that the replies are going to be thumbs, let’s see em ya jerks!!!
No. Thumbs up means that I agree with you. I know that the younger generation has started interpreting a thumbs up as something negative though, which just blows my mind.
👎
Don’t even get me started on this one
🙃
🙂
Depending on the context, it is can be used sarcastically, which may be rude. But I’ve used this even in semi-formal settings.
I have to ask, are people these days that easily offended?
Yes lmao, where you been? People want to be offended now to the degree where they look for things that aren’t really offensive but they can use it for sympathy likes.
Maybe I just have tuned my ability to notice it from years of “nothing is ever good enough” parents, teachers, and employers, but it’s literally the same mechanism that made my mom say “well a B is good but you need to be getting As. (And later) Well that low A is good but you need to get it higher.” Or my boss just always saying “faster faster” no matter how much “faster faster” you go, so I now just say “you got it boss” and continue at my pace instead of breaking my back just to hear “faster faster” again in response like he’s some kind of weird Gull that gained the ability to mimic human speech it can’t comprehend. It all comes from the same place, plus a dash of clickbait.
I agree with all of what you said. Both paragraphs
👍
👍
No. Your reading of it is unusual, in most contexts. It almost always means “agreement, and I have nothing of substance to add”.
It can be rude if the thing you’ve said should warrant a substantial response. Like if you wrote “my brother just died in a car wreck”, a thumbs up (or probably any emoji) would be an inappropriate response. Heavier stuff warrants whole words.
But if it’s like “Can you get cat food at the store? The kind we always get” then a thumbs up is an acceptable shorthand for "yes, I understand and commit to this request "
Just make sure you don’t use it, or fail to clarify and confirm the meaning of its use, in a business setting or you could be in some trouble.
No, you need therapy
Depends on context - if it’s a yes/no question or something that can be replied to with a simple “great” or “okay”, thumbs up serves as a “yes” or as a gesture that the person has read the message and doesn’t have any problems with it.
It might be considered rude though for more complex discussions, where you need to respond in sentences
Sometimes
Whatever you say you fucking dumbass
No. This is a rude reply:🖕
👍
This one feels worse to me ahahah
Context, it is the “K” of Emojis, acceptable as quick response, insulting in any serious conversation
👎
When I personally use it it means “OK, sounds good, I have nothing more to add but I read your message.”
It has also been ruled in court (I think in Australia but I dont remember for certain) that it is legally binding as a verbal agreement.
Basically a farmer sent a message to a wholesaler saying “Hey, I need to double my stock feed order for next quarter” or something like that, the supplier sent back a thumbs up. So the delivery arrived and it was only the regular amount. The farmer had to buy the extra amount at retail prices and it cost him tens of thousands more, so he sued for damages. The supplier argued that text messages and thumbs up werent the correct ordering procedure and that he wasnt liable, the court ruled effectively that “Then you should have said that. A thumbs up is a general term of positive response to a question or statement and in this case constitutes acceptance of a verbal agreement” and had to cough up.
Found the case, it was Canada and the farmer F-ed up not the supplier.
Exactly. Everyone at work uses it to cut the chain of “Looks good”, “Thanks”, “No problem”, etc short. If you’re interpreting an emoji as an attack you might have anger issues.
It depends on what it’s in response to.
Dinner at 6 at Greasy Spoon? 👍Entirely reasonable.
Should we do the project in COBOL? 👍Entirely unreasonable, but not rude.
My cat just died. 👍Rude.
This is the best answer. Also, even in some serious case the thumbs up is interpreted as “noted, all good”. It does not mean positive action, just saying “noted”.
This is absolutely spot on. Well done.
I guess I just picture a chat as a textual representation of a conversation and if I said to you, want to get dinner at 6, and you replied 👍 in real life, I would cancel the dinner lmao
You saying you’d straight up cancel a dinner because someone gave you a thumbs up instead of a verbal response genuinely blew my mind lmao. Ngl fam, that’s a bit extreme. I give people the thumbs up all the time, and imagining someone becoming so upset at me for doing it that they’d cancel our dinner together is insane to me. I couldn’t be friends with such a person without feelings like so was constantly walking on eggshells.
👍
It was an exageration my guy, as with all my reactions to the 👍 in this thread. It does not make me truly angry, I’m being a bit silly because it’s fun.
You and I are very different then. If I tell someone that dinner is at 6 and they give me a thumbs up, I would interpret that as “I acknowledge that I heard you and have no objections. It is not worth taking my attention off of whatever I am doing.”
I see where you’re coming from now. In most English-speaking cultures, it is not conventional to use hand gestures as a substitute for spoken words in a conversation. Breaking social conventions for no apparent reason is at least potentially rude.
You’re translating those conventions directly to chat. Chat is not spoken word, and it is conventional to use emojis, at least the really unambiguous ones, instead of typed words in chat some of the time. People do not usually do this with any rude or insulting intent.
I appreciate the level headed reply in the sea of insanity I have started with this thread.
Honestly, I don’t interpret it as something malicious ever either, like I don’t think everyone is actually telling me to fuck myself, it just reads that way to me.
You’re weird.
Yes, and weird is fun
I do not think the majority of people would agree that chat is a textual representation of a conversation. It’s its own thing and this is evident by slang, leetcode, emoticons, emoji, and euphemisms (🍆💦). How people talk over text is completely different than how they speak in real life, especially when they’re typing fast.
If you are mid drinking or chewing and somebody asks you a question, a thumbs up is perfectly acceptable as a yes. Otherwise its a bit odd, but not offensive. Its like a +1 affirmation
It’s probably one of the auto responses on their side when the text alert pops up. Maybe they were driving or I. The middle of something and it was just easier for them to respond this way.
I don’t, and I use it all the time. That said, I try to be mindful of context. For example, if I’m going to a party and someone texts saying to grab ice or something: 👍
Conversely, if someone is texting to say their dog died, or congratularions of a big achievement: !👍
Yeah dog died gets at least 🥳 or do you fucking hate fluffy?
