if you like a post where a person is talking about killing themselves that means that you like that that person wants to kill themselves, there is no other interpretation for the wording x has liked your post that i can infer in good faith and this is why i tell people not to like my negative posts unless they like that i'm in misery because if you want to convey anything else you have 26 letters and punctuation at your disposal
"but i don't have words" reply with a fucking heart emoji not a god damn like
@mavica_again This is helpful, and for what it's worth, I apologize if I've done this (I hit that button a lot); in my experience, NTs tend to interpret the +fave button as more of a vague expression of positive vibes/sentiments, meaning anything from "yay!" to "oof, I feel you :(" depending on the context of the post. And in the process of obsessively studying their usage of the +fave button to better understand it, I've found myself adopting it sometimes as well, because it *is* handy to have a vague "send positive vibes" button, especially on one of those "words are hard" days. But that's a whole extra layer that has to be patched in separately, and, yeah, I too wish that it were used more literally.
@lupinia a reply with a single emoji is much more personable than a click of an automated social interaction like we're cattle
(with apologies to otherkin who actually are cattle but, for lack of a better idiom, you know what i mean)
@mavica_again *giggles* Indeed; I didn't see your other posts in this thread until after I finished writing, but yeah, good points all around - I really enjoy reading your perspective :)
@mavica_again I’ve definitely done this recently because I didn’t know if a virtual stranger would actually want to hear my dumb self say something. Now I know better and won’t do this anymore. Thanks and ❤️
@mavica_again@computerfairi.es Over here on the Misskey/fork side of things, we have "reactions" which very unfortunately federate to Mastodon as a Favorite/Like (⭐) and nothing else (while Misskey/fork's "favorites" are a personal, non-public bookmark).
I have, and I have seen others, react to negative posts with consolatory emotes, (hugs, pats, hearts, etc) and especially with darker contexts, it's a real shame that the intention of the interaction is lost or inverted simply because of platform differences.
It reminds me of an article that I had read a few weeks ago (and cannot find the origin at the moment) where the author had made a habit of storing the death date of their deceased acquaintances in their Google Contacts, and Google would send them congratulatory reminders of these dates as if it was something to be happy about, as if it were a birthday, emphasizing how technology can be completely tone-deaf in this day and age.
@kitty i do not agree that reactions as opposed to replies are a positive way to interact with a negative post regardless of title/image associated with the reaction
i am aware as i host a firefish instance
@mavica_again@computerfairi.es For your given example, I'd agree with you, a thoughtful response is entirely more appropriate than a like or reaction which carries a heavy implication of "I gave this 0.5 seconds of my time, next please".
But, unfortunately, that is a matter of opinion, and with some exceptions, we share this common space with people who may think that is appropriate, and may be socially awkward or inexperienced to the point that they don't understand the implications of how such an interaction is received. Informing them is a wonderful start, but the loss in translation is nonetheless saddening because you couldn't even give such people the benefit of the doubt if they had missed it.
this is the crux of how antisocial social media is because it has turned you all into idle clickers instead of actually considering the person on the other side of the screen and putting the onus of "that's just how everybody uses social media!" on me