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Showerthoughts @lemmy.world

paulzy @lemmy.world

3mo ago

Thumbs up is such a common emoji but almost nobody gives IRL thumbs up anymore.

I fully expect what the first reply to this might be.

67 comments

Everyone i know gives thumbs up
- 👍 same
- Same, even my young kids if I ask them a yes/no question while they're eating to avoid talking with their mouth full.

i use it a lot.. when im on the phone and someone pops in asking question only needing a positive response.

Wildly untrue. I see thumbs up every day.

I feel like this is a you thing. I bet if you started doing it around people others would start doing it without realizing.
- That might be true, or something local. I posted that this morning then got too busy to check in. I probably should have made it less about “positive/negative” and more about “it’s cool vs not cool” Here is my way too late OP explanation:
  I go to a lot of sports events, hockey mostly. Since the 90s my friends and I play a little game. Count the people who give a #1 finger on the jumbotron vs point at their jersey vs thumbs up. Collectively, we have decided that ”kids today” don’t use thumbs up as much as in the past. I also noticed “Let’s go!” Is the cheer these days.
  Sorry for oversimplifying my shower thought.
  
  All good. I made a similar extrapolation the other day about pudding not seeming as popular because I wasn't seeing people eating it or it advertised but after voicing my thoughts to a coworker I realized I'm probably just not anywhere near the target market. I'm not a sugar crazed child watching children's TV networks and nor do I have kids myself.

But people do. I use it all the time.

I really do regularly
- So do I

OP, where do you live? I get thumbs up all the time. Sometimes as a greeting, sometimes as an encouragement (e.g. during a run), sometimes even as a means of communication in traffic.
- Western Canada. I was thinking maybe it’s like a soda vs pop thing. Or just wildly isolated to my own experience. Just showerthinking.

👍🏼

(sorry, not the first)

I give thumbs up all the time. Usually two of them at the same time with a forced smile to let people know I wanna turn into oncoming traffic every day.

I use it IRL and have used the emoji I think once. So egg on your face, you fucking rube! You've never been more wrong bucko!
- 👍

I do

I'm more of a finger guns kinda guy.
- A real straight shooter.

That's very anecdotal, do you know any studies that investigate thumbs up prevalence IRL and online?

The deaf guys at my warehouse exist lol
I should get better at ASL

My kid uses it very liberally.

Do finger guns count as a thumbs up? My thumbs are up when I do them.
- That depends, is it a revolver or a semi-auto?
  
  Double action revolvers are semi auto.
  Some mag fed pistols have external hammers.
- WOAH why are you pointing cocked finger guns at people? That's dangerous.

Yeah I do, I just use the wrong thumb most times.
- Is there a wrong thumb?
  
  🖕

I do it constantly, also the 🤙 and the shocker depending on the vibes.

I'm still using it as an "I got it" hand gesture; if i'm in the middle of some work and someone approaches me to tell me something while i'm busy.

I give a thumbs up to tell my scuba buddy that its time to ascend

I used it three times this morning at the dentist because I couldn't talk. Also use it regularly at work to convey agreement. See others use it fairly often too.

Guess this should be on unpopular opinion since everyone in the comments is disputing OP
- Unpopular opinions are one of my specialties.
  
  What about fighting Sith lords?

With my boss, I flip randomly from 👍 to 👌 to 🖕

Lots of things have suffered the same fate. Just think of LOL, 😂, or 🤣 for example.
- People still laugh
  
  Yes they do, but the text response doesn’t really reflect the actual one.

I use it on Teams
- I use it on Skype. Not just video, but in chat as well

I love using thumbs up ironically. Like is someone trying to ask for an explanation to why i don't sit down to shit? 👍
- That's not an example of irony though?
  
  *I love using thumbs up in a way that invokes absurdist situational irony by laying out an absurd situation that the other person expects an explanation for, but instead receives a friendly affirmation in the form of the thumbs up emoji, which exemplifies situational irony by subverting the other person's expectations of what the situation is actually about.

The thumbs up emoji is hated now and viewed as passive aggressive compliance.
So, I definitely thumbs up more often IRL.
- Maybe where you live, but not for me. Thumbs up emoji just means okay / will do / message received, in Colorado at least
- Is it tho?
  
  This is what my wife and kids have told me. 🤷🏻‍♂️
- I use a thumbs up reaction as "I acknowledge I've read and understood this, but don't think you require a push notification" so I guess your mileage may vary
  
  That's what I thought too, but I was told that's no longer the case.
- What hare brained social group do you participate in?
  
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbbrandon/2022/10/16/gen-z-have-canceled-the-thumbs-up-emoji-and-heres-why-we-should-worry/
- 👍
- It’s definitely the way my ex wife uses it. So it just has a negative connotation to it for me.

67 comments