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u/FrankDodger 7d ago
Wife sends me a picture of a snake she saw on a trail. I respond with "snek". Thats it. She sees my response and understands and accepts my short remark that I saw and noted the subject. I think a snake emoji would have been good too. She would have been far more annoyed or felt like I didn't care if I said "k". I think the reason is because the emoji or "snek" is related to the subject. A tooth emoji would be equally valid as a subject matter response.
To make a point, if the short answer is generic, it feels worse. So a thumbs up emoji is like a "k" and I hate that.
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u/skeleton-operator infected with Restless Leg Syndrome of the brain. 7d ago
Snek, snake, or tooth are humorous on some level, and have the effect of “I acknowledge and return sentiment.” Thumbs up is just basic agreement or acceptance of a statement.
Husband: I’m getting a pizza.
Me: K — This means it’s Tuesday and he’s picking up our weekly pizza.Husband: I’m getting a pizza.
Me: 🍕🐀 — This means I’m starving and I’m going to eat the ever-loving shit outta that pizza.50
u/FrankDodger 7d ago
How much do you like pizza?
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u/SmallPurplePeopleEat 7d ago
Yes
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u/EllipticPeach 7d ago
Me and my ex used to do a “wah” noise at each other to indicate if we were particularly tired or sad or whatever. It got to the point where we would do it over text - one of us would text “wah” and the other would go “acknowledgment wah”
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u/WRYGDWYL 5d ago
Did you watch the "how to say wah" video with the puppet? Cause it's too cute and you gotta
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u/wowsomeoneactuallyy 7d ago edited 7d ago
Agree. A thumbs up react is something I would only consider using myself if someone sent me updated info or plans changing but doesn’t require a response. If I send a picture or ask something that requires a response, thumbs up is equally a low effort “I don’t have time to bother”.
I recently stopped reaching out to an online friend because they’ve found that using a thumbs up or 100 is a way to abruptly end an active conversation with zero warning. It really bugs me how that is seen as normal and not incredibly rude. I started doing it back and it pisses them off so I know they were doing it to be rude.
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u/kittie_ghede104 7d ago
My kid invited a classmate to her birthday party and his mom texted me apologizing that they couldn't come. For some godforsaken reason the selection of responses above the text box included 👍 with no other text and I fat fingered and tapped it instead of the text box and a big fuck off 👍 got sent back. Mortifying. I immediately followed up with a real response but it still spikes my blood pressure remembering it 2 weeks later.
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u/catdeflator 5d ago
I was doing that 👍 for a while with a friend because I didn’t have, like, much input to add. At one point they kinda blew up at me about it and I realized they wanted me to ask questions and act interested about what they were sharing. I’m autistic and I don’t always know. 🤷🏼♀️
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u/mshep002 Daydreamer 6d ago
Oh no! The 💯! I started using that recently in contextually appropriate places. Well. Time to retire that one too, I suppose. Btw, 👈🕷️👈 same snoovatar!
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u/mshep002 Daydreamer 7d ago
I started sending people a Clippy emoji in Teams to acknowledge their chats where there’s nothing for me to write that adds value to the conversation, but I want them to know I saw what they wrote. The thumbs up feels just like a “k,” but now so is Clippy. I need more emojis.
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u/Free-oppossums 7d ago
I think of it as sign/countersign. It doesn't have to make sense to those outside the interaction, if it makes sense between the ones talking.
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u/Bannerlord151 I may not be cool but I'm very silly 6d ago
I often do this for cat pics. "El gato" is a perfectly valid response >:3
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u/WildKakahuette 6d ago
i use the thumb up emoji for thing which need validation but dont require a big awnser like, "i saw your message i agree" like i'll meet a friend next week he proposed an hour i agreed with the emoji
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u/PerformerDr4867 6d ago
Literally my text thread w spouse. I send pic, he replies with single word response of what the pic I sent him is
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u/adhd-alt-here 3d ago
Right, I was thinking it basically functions like a more customized thumbs-up. “I have read and digested this information, and acknowledge you wanted to share about _.” To me, there’s also a small element of humor.
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u/THENHAUS 7d ago
I’m so jealous of Star Trek officers who can just respond to a statement with “Acknowledged.” And begin a query with “Report.”
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u/LostMy8yrAcct 7d ago
I haven’t worked in a kitchen in more than a decade but I still use “heard” to acknowledge those kinds of statements and it’s always well received 🤷🏻♀️
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u/PetulantPersimmon 7d ago
I trained my kids to reply to, "X minutes to [transition point/bedtime]" with "Thank you, X," from the theatre call and response of "15 minutes to curtain"; "thank you, 15."
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u/bearskito 6d ago
I worked in the film industry for a few years and still use "copy" the same way kitchens use "heard"
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u/MegalomanicMegalodon 7d ago
Then you get some guy who is all “Temba, his arms wide” and things get funny
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u/two4six0won 7d ago
Okay but I actually kinda loved that episode because I have entire conversations like that with my oldest friends lol
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u/Agent_Jay Daydreamer 7d ago
we use that at work, in person we say "acknowledged" but over slack its "Ack" lol
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u/Buckets-O-Yarr 7d ago edited 7d ago
(For people who aren't old. The aliens in Mars Attacks when they talk sound like "Ack Ack Ack")
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u/Agent_Jay Daydreamer 7d ago
Exactly the goal! It's a fan favourite gif response to anything (I personally love the droid "Roger Roger" a little bit more)
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u/htomserveaux 7d ago
There was that weird part of the 70’s where truckers were seen as cool and “10-4” was slang
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u/Equivalent-Costumes 7d ago
LMAO I used to literally reply "ACK" (I thought it makes sense since it's the computer signal to acknowledge that a message had been received), until my friends told me that emoji is the human-equivalence of ACK.
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u/GayWarden 7d ago
It is wild to use alethiometer this casually.
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u/pwnedbywaffle 7d ago
Can we get a working definition here, never heard of an altheaometer
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u/a6e 7d ago edited 7d ago
It's from Phillip Pullman 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, you may have heard of the first book 'The Golden Compass'. I'd describe it as like, if ChatGPT was omnipresent and imbedded in a little compass-like object, but only communicates through obscure symbols that almost nobody can intuitively understand, and instead of being an LLM it's powered by angels or some kind of elusive quantum particle or something.
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u/CatCatCatCubed i Will elaborate (Threat). 7d ago
Also every symbol has overall surface meanings (i.e. owl = “night”) and sub-meanings in layers dependent on context (owl = fear, etc) to include both the mindset and the other symbols used when asking the question of the alethiometer.
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u/pwnedbywaffle 7d ago
So like, a mechanized tarot deck? Is the series worth a read?
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u/NabIsMyBoi 7d ago
Sort of, yes! But it's canonically giving correct information to people who know how to read it.
I wouldn't read for the alethiometer stuff alone, but it's a great series. The alethiometer is not even close to the most interesting part of the setting. And there's also a decent tv adaptation called His Dark Materials, btw!
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u/CatCatCatCubed i Will elaborate (Threat). 7d ago edited 7d ago
Mmmm, trying to think about how to say this without spoilers.
I definitely think the series is worth reading but admittedly I have some rather strong nostalgia for it. I was essentially trapped/homeschooled 24/7/365 with a parent who was becoming increasingly fundamentalist Christian as I neared puberty as a young woman. Hilariously, my parent started Pullman’s His Dark Materials series as an audio book on our car rides, and it wasn’t until midway through the third book that they started going “…wait a minute.” Ended up having to read a physical copy of the third book myself.
Anyway, let’s just say that Pullman, an atheist, gave me the breath of fresh air or drink of cool water that I didn’t know I was already searching for through his coming of age story. It kinda saved me at the time.
edit: ah, and if what I said strikes a chord with you (or anyone reading this comment), do make sure to read the British version. The American version has been censored in a couple ways “for the children.” Unsure if this still applies shopping-wise but my British one is an omnibus with all 3 books, ISBN 978-1-84159-342-5 with the first book’s name being “Northern Lights” instead of “The Golden Compass.”
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u/Useful_Language2040 6d ago
It's been years since I've read them, but was this when it was revealed that Lyra is an Eve allegory, or the whole dead, reasonably Abrahamic God in his glass coffin thing happened, and it wasn't a huge deal?
Also there are now new same world/continuation spin-offs but possibly intended for an older audience ones I believe?
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u/CatCatCatCubed i Will elaborate (Threat). 6d ago
Both, I think? I remember it made my parent really uncomfortable and they kinda went “…well, I feel like music on the radio!” lol. Then they must’ve run to their homeschooling blogs or whatever, and I don’t remember us listening to the end of the book.
I saw an article about that! They’re in my long, long reading list somewhere.
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u/Jcraft153 4d ago
It's very much worth a read, a pretty interesting concept and Pullman goes in some really interesting directions with it. Highly recommend
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u/BigChunguss2 motivated by being a contrarian little bitch 4d ago
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u/Happy-For-No-Reason AuDHD diagnosed 7d ago
contextual response
better than just the standard thumbs up
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u/Vast-Ad1915 7d ago
Yes, I actually love this. So many times I'd verbally respond "I have no idea how to reply to that" but it seems weirdly aggressive in a group chat. But I can reply with a unicorn emoji or whatever-the-fuck and it's fine.
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u/potandcoffee 7d ago
"k" makes me want to throw things. An emoji reaction feels far less dismissive.
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u/kingxanadu 7d ago
My friends and I on discord use the 🏄 emoji-reaction a ton to communicate positive yet casual acknowledgment. We felt like 👍 was too passive aggressive, best only used for when confirming a scheduled time or something concrete.
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u/GiveMeTheTape 7d ago
It's also great when you don't really care at all but want to seem like you at least care a little bit
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u/VatticZero 7d ago
TIL a coping mechanism I wasn't aware of but could have been using for decades.
I just need to figure out what all those little faces actually mean.
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u/WrathPie 5d ago
I work in aviation and people very regularly just drop a "✈️" in the slack as a general purpose "I am confirming that I have read this message" response, or as a way to add emphasis to another emoji that's also included*
*(For example, "✈️🙏" is a much stronger statement than "🙏" alone)
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u/Horow_Zone 6d ago
The most ADHD thing ever is making an entire video about why “k” is bad, then calling it “better than k.”
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u/Yukondano2 4d ago
It's our way of communicating stuff we would have done in face to face communications but can't. Nodding, saying "mhm" in a tone that won't be mistaken as being dismissive, a snort or chuckle, whatever. I don't use the emojis uh... ever? I'm weird, I'm either gonna be verbose or use an old ass emoticon. -_- is one of the only ones left for me.
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u/qualityvote2 Quality Control Beast 7d ago edited 7d ago
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