Dhe thumb is the king of fingers. We realize that as children. After all, he doesn’t have to shake plums, pick them up, carry them home or eat them up. He just IS. Works solely through its existence. This promising presence is finally redeemed with the first smartphone.
If children first wipe the screen from bottom to top with their index finger, they will soon learn the more elegant operation, of course, with their thumb. Type their first words with him, eventually sentences. Digital communication begins with the plump friend. Now it is precisely the youngest generation that no longer feels attacked by the middle finger, but by the stretched out first of all fingers.
The “thumbs up” gesture has always caused confusion. According to myth, pointing the thumb up saved the life of Roman gladiators. It was probably the other way around. He did not stand for life, but for the drawn sword – death. A closed thumb, on the other hand, with the sword in its scabbard, spared the fighters. However, the thumbs-up sign did not have its success story from the Romans, but from US fighter pilots in World War II. Thumbs up, they showed everything was fine, they were ready to take off.
Today, in real life, one would most likely expect the gesture to come from nice mothers watching their children practice ballet. Young people themselves would at most stretch their fingers ironically. Which is why the gesture has wisely saved itself from the real to the digital world. Into immortality.
On social media, the thumbs-up icon has proven particularly useful for those who are reluctant to speak their mind. But be happy if someone else does it for you. The likes that a profile photo gets have become a status symbol. The little flying thumbs (and hearts) for influencers a currency unit. It was only this year that the messenger service WhatsApp introduced the function of adding thumbs, hearts, tears of laughter and other emojis to messages. The thumb means something like “I understand / OK / That’s how we do it”. It frees the respondent from the pressure of always wanting to say the same thing a little differently. A rescue from the looming phrase with minimal effort.
The thumb at work
Above all, he saves time with his colleagues. Since Corona and lockdowns have shifted work meetings to Slack, Skype and Teams, the digital thumb has become unstoppable. He shows a brief “understood”, “will be done” or “I agree” without making himself vulnerable with concrete statements. Maybe the thumb is such a success story among millennials because it doesn’t commit itself. He suggests some agreement, but not when, where and how it will be expressed. No one can pin you down on one thumb.
However, the sign is all the less popular with its youngest colleagues, Generation Z (those born between 1996 and 2010). Earlier this year, a post went viral on social media platform Reddit in which a user complained about the thumb: “Am I not mature enough to be comfortable with the ‘thumbs up’ emoji reaction?” There was a lot of approval for this, especially from young users. Another wrote, “For younger people (I’m 24) the thumbs-up emoji is really passive-aggressive. It’s super rude when someone just sends you a ‘thumbs up.'” Or, “It strikes me as a little hostile, like an acknowledgment, but at the same time a way of saying, ‘I don’t really care.'”
Other users defended the thumb. One wrote that he would use it permanently. Another even made a declaration of love, on the thumb and its diversity. However, both thumb advocates identified themselves as older than 40 and thus almost as boomers. In other words, whoever uses the thumbs-up emoji is officially old.
The new emoji sensitivity
Bizarre that the thumb is felt to be out of place at the workplace rather than the red heart. The heart is often used when you are particularly pleased about the statement of a colleague. Someone is taking a shift, or has completed a chore. It conveys warmth over the cold keyboard without being prosecuted for it. In fact, emojis convey emotions at the non-verbal level. They convey similar messages as a face-to-face contact. But beware, according to a study, people who use emojis in texts are perceived as less “assertive” than those who write emoji-free messages.
In the end, the thumb discussion again reflects the work conflict between the baby boomers and the very young. Because in the rejection of the thumb there is also an expectation. One wishes for a more sensitive handling of sent messages. A response that requires a little more effort than a click. So you want to be appreciated. Why else would one perceive the thumb as hostile. Older people who are trimmed for efficiency can counter this with the accusation of an effeminate generation that spends more time on their sensitivities than on work.
But we shouldn’t leave this conflict out on the thumb if we want to understand each other better. After all, “grasping” also includes “grasping” and, as is well known, that is difficult without a thumb.
The thumbs-up emoji will probably eventually go the way of everything obsolete and will also be used ironically in the workplace. Only the older ones might not notice that. This phase of the cycle will then be followed by that of vintage chic. And so the thumb could experience its deserved renaissance in a few years.