Heads Up New Jersey: Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Use The Thumbs Up Emoji
Well, it's happened.
New Jersey loves to argue so much that now we have lowered ourselves to debating about the last thing I ever thought I would ever debate about: emojis.
No, I'm not kidding.
Emojis have become an artform and I am always eager to see what they will release next.
But you youngins' and your cancel culture are ruining it! This more specifically applies to you Gen Zers who were born between 1997 and 2012.
According to NYPost.com, "Gen Zers are calling out the popular thumbs-up emoji for being 'rude' and 'hostile,' even saying they feel attacked whenever they see it used in the workplace."
Rude? Hostile? What in the....?
I am legitimately confused.
“We’re people and we have words to use,” Kim Law, a 25-year-old social worker from Massapequa, told The Post according to NYPost.com. “If I took the time out to write a thoughtful message, then you shouldn’t be responding with the bare minimum. Fix it and write something real back.”
Okay, that is a very fair point.
That is not all. The red heart emoji is also on the chopping block.
“To me, the heart is reserved for friends and family, and has a more intimate meaning of love, while thumbs-up is just simple agreeing,” wrote one commenter according to NYPost.com. “I actually find a heart emoji weird for work messages. I use heart emojis for things like when someone says ‘I got a new kitten,’ or ‘Susie did a really great job,'” added another.
When you've spent a majority of your life using technology as your main form of communication, I guess it isn't that outlandish for a picture to mean so much.
Then again, texting is like a science when I watch people who are a few years younger than me.
“[Emojis] can be interpreted as disrespectful,” Elaine Swann, a corporate trainer, told The Post according to NYPost.com. “It can differ from generation to generation. Across the board, people want to know they’ve been heard and emojis do not convey that for everybody.”
In general, Gen Zers say that only Boomers, Generation Jones, Gen Xers and even some Xennials will use the thumbs up emoji and the red heart.
I use it. Maybe not in work emails or anything professional but I use them.
This story right here is why I am so grateful that I grew up before the era of cellphones and social media.
I went to school, came home, grabbed my bike and headed out into the neighborhood.
I like to have serious discussions face to face and can't see myself adding this whole big backstory to the thumbs up emoji.
It means, "You got it!" It means, "Okay, great!"
But alright! You don't want me to use it, I won't use it. There's no reason to use a picture if it is going to bother another person that much.
Wait, one more time.
Just kidding....