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!!!
It’s a pretty simple “acknowledged” to me. It’s a “I’ve not just seen your message, I’ve read it, and I have no further comments”.
I don’t think I’ve ever interpreted it as rude.
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 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
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.
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 feeling like I was constantly walking on eggshells.
in response to plans?
chill.
in response to something like a political opinion?
highly sarcastic.
👍
This is literally my “message received” emote.
If people thought it was rude, I’d be fired by now.
Next post:
“Why do people respond to a message that doesn’t need a response when they could just send an emoji?”
Be careful that people don’t think you’re contractually agreeing to something with the emoji: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/06/canada-judge-thumbs-up-emoji-sign-contract
👍
It really depends on the age of the sender.
30s and younger: Fairly dismissive response. Not outright insulting but pretty rude.
40s and older: genuinely meant as an earnest acknowledgement of your message.
Nope, because I use it myself. But I don’t use it as a conversational tool though. I just use it as confirmation that I received and read what you sent but it isn’t necessary to continue the conversation. For example, I’m already in a conversation with someone and the assumption is I need them to send me a file. When they finally send it over, I just react with a thumbs up to confirm I got it. Context is important. The emoji is only as meaningful as the context of the conversation it is in.
👍
👎
Don’t even get me started on this one
🙃
👍
Get that fucking thing out of here pal!!!
👍
👍
👍
Yeah that sounds like a you problem. Most people use it to just mean “ok.” But I mean, if you said “mom just died 😭” and you get “👍” as a reply, that one’s probably rude.
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 "
In a professional setting, it’s been a normalised acknowledgement, but socially I try to avoid it. Depending on the generation it can be taken the wrong way.
If it’s coming from my older coworkers, I know it’s meant well. They approve of whatever was discussed and are too busy to type out more, or its unnecessary.
If it’s coming from my gen z boyfriend, I have pissed him off.
Nah, and to be honest it threw me off to hear some people interpet it that way. It’s always meant “acknowledged” or “I agree, no notes” to me.
If I wanted to be rude I’d do this instead: 👍🙄
Depends on who’s saying it and to what, and in what manner (message reaction, its own separate text).
“Hey who wants pizza tonight?” in the group text.
Bunch of👍reactions mixed in with some 🍕 and 🕺
That’s normal and people agreeing with you.
“Hey could you pick up some toilet paper on the way home?”
👍 reaction.
That’s a neutral kind of acknowledgement.
“Hey man, that was pretty fucked what you said back at the party. I think the others want to talk to you about it.”
“👍”
That’s rude and dismissive, and not just an acknowledgement text.
Not really, maybe passive agressive at times, but I always see it as casual agreement.