@mavica_again

as i experience it, the "like" hits a lower threshold than saying words in terms of drawing from limited emotional reserves- an offering of "oh yeah cool i see and i dig it" without having anything to add, but with a lower sense of urgency than might be used to boost - (but also, duly noted, and on your posts in da future i will use boost button since clear communication >> unwritten social contract assumption) demonstrating emotional energy beyond like also feels like maybe you're obliging the original poster to engage back with you some way when you had nothing to add in the first place, whereas the like or star or whatever terminates the exchange freeing you both from social obligations- comes out as "i give you posivibes! a smile from a distance, a thumbs up, we both move forward"

conversely, saying "yeah" instead of starliking or boosting carries a negative stigma that, at best, is read like "uh why didn't you use the button" and at worst as signalling so much self importance that the tool just Wasn't Enough for your all important yeah- now all eyes passing over the OP will also see this "yeah" as if it were claiming and basking in the relative glory. it's an absurd!!! convention!! it's an absurd series of things to assume! but i think it's widely perceived as real, absurd or not

psychopolitics by byung-chul han made me think that likestar button smash is probably more about self affirmation than anything, like, "i consider this image or sentiment to be representative of some of my internal landscape, now i am engaging with it which is the same as acting in any real way" and that when thought about clearly it's asshole shit, but dopamine is scarce out here and i'm willing to fall back on basically any way to claim it ez - tiny loop where i get a lil dopamine, poster (usually) gets a little dopamine and everyone (goofily) feels a li'l more like themselves or their thoughts are valid 'n have a place in the world