Asklemmy

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 "

in response to plans?

chill.

in response to something like a political opinion?

highly sarcastic.

👎

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.

I give a 👍 on a reaction message all the time cause I'm too lazy to respond to it using words

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."

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.

👍

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.

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 👍👁️👄👁️👍

no definitely not. but that's probably because i don't associate with people who think im a piece of shit

Whether a thumbs-up emoji is a good response really depends on the situation.

If it's a quick 'yes' or 'okay' to a simple question, it's fine. But if someone's asking for your opinion or needs more details, it can seem like you're not putting in much effort.

Also, how well you know the person matters a lot. You might use it with a close friend. In contrast someone you don't know well, it can be considered rude.

Whatever you say you fucking dumbass 👍

Really just depends on the context but generally it isn't what you think it means and it's simply your personal interpretation. You have to assume people are well intentioned or you start having trust issues. Most people don't see themselves as the asshole and I guarantee you do shit that pisses other people off even if you mean well.

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?

Not really, maybe passive agressive at times, but I always see it as casual agreement.

No 👍

Initially I did yeah, but eventually learned that different people use it differently. So good practice to never assume sarcasm through emojis unless you know the person well

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.

I found it rude but not anymore and I have to really think about it. On facebook messenger, the default emoji is 👍 and during my stay on that platform (~2011-2017) it was regarded as a rude, low effort dismissal, at least inside my circles.

Nowadays, i double take and find that people don't indent to be rude to me. After all, i'm not on facebook anymore and these people weren't in my circle.

It says we are all a bunch Fonzies here, and what is Fonzie?

👍🏻(deragatory) /s

👎

Depends on context for me.

I'm going to say it's not a "you" problem, but a "who you're surrounded by" problem. Is this something you're used to percieving accurately? Do you have friends or family who would actually mean it rudely? Because, as others have mentioned, I simply would not be able to function at work if I interpreted 👍 as rude/sarcastic.

I have to assume you're young or your work doesn't involve communicating with coworkers or clients over text. I'd also be curious if you look back at this post 5-10 years from now and think "wtf was I on about?" (I'd also be curious if civilization still exists 5-10 years from now, but I digress...)

Personally i do. Same as the 😉 wink smiley... comes across as a bit of a cunt in my opinion.

Could be because there were shitty people that would use it in condescending ways at me.

I used to but then at work everyone always uses the thumbs up on slack. So I got used to it. Nowadays it depends on the context of the convo

👎

I'm with you but it's a generational thing. Are you a millennial?