Apparently, I have become a “hostile” and “passive-aggressive” managing editor over the company Slack as I habitually abuse the thumbs-up emoji.
In a news story making the media rounds that’s clearly engineered to make folks over 35 angry (or just Fox boomers, I’m not sure), a single Reddit user complained that the Gen X favorite is “super rude” and that they only use it sarcastically. While this is the kind of piece generated to drum up clicks (guilty), it’s worth noting that plenty has been written in the past year about the generational emoji gap, and there’s something to be said about just how long we’ve been living with the Facebook thumbs-up sign of universal approval. Even though Facebook (er, Meta) discontinued it in 2013, we’ve been under that thumb shadow for quite some time. I don’t know what that next YES or OK emoji will be, but maybe it’s time to start gently putting those thumbs down to rest.
In the meantime, I’ll be building my perfect $28 Taco Bell order since some dummy who doesn’t know what a combo meal is went on Fox Business to use his lunch order to complain about inflation.
