If you spend any time on Twitter, you probably noticed a lot of love on the site on Tuesday. Well, a lot of hearts anyway. A little red heart icon has usurped the familiar little yellow star icon used for expressing approval of others’ 140-character musings.
Akarshan Kumar, a Twitter product manager, noted in a blog post that the star can confuse people (an assessment I, for one, find somewhat confusing). “The heart, in contrast, is a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones,” Kumar said. “The heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people.”
The heart icon is now known as a Facebook-style “like,” but does anyone really like it? By midday Tuesday, about 80 percent of the tweets on the topic expressed approval, according to social-media analysis platform Brandwatch. But we couldn’t help but love the tweets from and about the haters. Here, we share some of the venting.
Oh, and if you happen to be a heart hater yourself, don’t be too brokenhearted. As Mashable reports, there’s already a way to bring back the stars. Gizmodo even has a tutorial for replacing the heart with the emoji of your choice. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You only think you hate Twitter hearts because you haven’t met the right tweet yet.
— L Johnston (@FinalBullet) November 4, 2015
Make the hearts black and I’ll reconsider my position
— Silvia Killingsworth (@silviakillings) November 3, 2015
“I’m really angry that these little hearts have replaced little stars!!!” – adults
— elan gale (@theyearofelan) November 3, 2015
BREAKINGNEWZ: Jeb Bush has fallen behind Twitter Hearts in new poll.
— Woo Woo On You (@ThatElJefe) November 4, 2015
I insist the #hearts are changed to mini Death Stars.
❤️➡️ ➡️ ➡️ 🌐
— DarthVader_No1™ (@Burnt_Out_Darth) November 3, 2015
TWITTER DESIGNER: How about instead of stars we do hearts
TWITTER CEO: As long as people can still swear at total strangers, idgaf
— pat tobin (@tastefactory) November 3, 2015
Me: Everything was going great until they started using hearts instead of stars.
Therapist: Sam, I asked you about your kids.
— Sam Delanche (@samfromks) November 3, 2015
[extremely Werner Herzog voice]
But what the Twitter men ignored was that no preponderance of hearts could alter the universe’s cold apathy
— Robinson Meyer (@yayitsrob) November 3, 2015
Twitter can turn stars to hearts but can’t let us edit our tweets 😑
— KING DRE (@OfficialKingDre) November 3, 2015
If elected I will bring back stars #hearts
— Jeremey Corbyn (@jeremeycorbyn) November 3, 2015
Twitter is no place for hearts. It should remain a cold universe of stars. #heartsontwitter#heartgate
— Natalie Morin (@nbmorin) November 3, 2015
Favorites are now hearts? That’s….lovely..
sorry, I’ll stop.
— SSundee (@SSundee) November 3, 2015
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Why Twitter’s new hearts are stressing people out
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