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.
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: 👍🙄
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 "
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.
in response to plans?
chill.
in response to something like a political opinion?
highly sarcastic.
👍
I give a 👍 on a reaction message all the time cause I’m too lazy to respond to it using words
Why waste word when 👍 do trick?
Reacting with “I agree” instead of 👍 in the reaction field can completely disrupt a conversation.
👎
Don’t even get me started on this one
🙃
🙂
oh noooo
Ceasar has joined the conversation
GenX here. Shit, I do thumbs up frequently to confer agreement.
And I will indeed give you a middle finger emoji to say, “you fucking dumbass.”Millennial here, I use the shit emoji
Boomer here, what’s an emoji?
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.
Aka context matters, like all forms of english communication.
First of all - I’m shocked that anyone would use a thumb up like in your last example. That’s obviously extremely rude and disrespectful.
Second of all - I’m shocked that some people can’t see the difference of the usage of the thumb up and believe that it’s always rude, regardless of context.
It’s a little bit of a generational/cultural gap, I think! Like how
Ok.andOk...are fully normal to boomers, but anyone millennial and younger are going to read that as being short, or as an ominous trailing off compared to the neutral, no-caps-no-punctuationkkorok.I think children up through the younger end of millennials are just more likely to give neutral-to-lightly-positive acknowledgement in other ways, like 🫡or ✅ or 🥰 or 💯. 👍 is reserved by some for lower enthusiasm or even a restrained, mild annoyance.
That was pretty fucking funny
👍
The chat built into my hospital’s charting software has the ‘thumbs up’ react so you can quickly and easily show that you’ve read it. So for me it just means ‘heard’, ‘roger’, etc.
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.
No. This is a rude reply:🖕
👍
This one feels worse to me ahahah
Depends on context. Most of the time it’s just a confirmation. You are reading your insecurities into it.
If I want to make it sarcastic I like 👍👁️👄👁️👍
