Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak. ~ John Berger, Ways of Seeing
I’ve resorted to making my own gold star out of hacked up Post-Its
I’m mourning the loss of the gold star and all that its presence in my Twitter world represented. I’ll start by explaining how I used the Twitter gold star.
- It was a bookmark. “I want to find this again so I’m saving it” or “I’m saving this to read later.”
- It was a thank you for a comment or share.
- It was a log of conversations and comments to which I wanted to return.
- It was a LOL or a high five. “Hilarious!” or “haha good one.”
- It was a like. “Good share / nice post /effective point,” usually followed by a retweet. But it wasn’t just a like.
As well as being reminiscent of award stickers from school days, the gold star, in conjunction with its description as a ‘favourite’, was a nuanced symbol of Twitter communication.
And now it’s been replaced with a glib red heart. Superficial. Facile. Flippant. Lacking in nuance. These strings of blood-red hearts in my feed make me feel like I must be in some kind of sappy, thoughtless feeling-saturated love-in.
I don’t mind giving a bit of heart love while watching a Periscope broadcast. I don’t mind the practice of likes on Facebook and Instagram. In these worlds, a user can ‘like’ something in a transient way, and then forget about it. Click. Forget. Liking works for me because on Facebook I’m engaging about my non-work non-academic life. On Twitter I’m often engaging in discussion on education, research, politics, parenting or work. As a point of difference, Twitter gives us a record of those things we’ve favourited (or now, ‘liked’) meaning that the star/heart favourite/like is a way of curating a feed of personalised information. This is a good thing.
The change in language is a change in purpose. ‘Liking’ a post is different to ‘favouriting’ it. Do I want to *star* a confronting article, an opposing viewpoint or a harrowing news story? Maybe. Would I want to *heart* it? No.
Twitter says the star was confusing to newcomers. It was versatile.
Twitter says the heart is more expressive. It is less expressive and more one-dimensional.
Twitter says the heart is a universal cross-cultural symbol. Yes. Of love. Twitter isn’t about love for all its users. I don’t follow celebrities, unless you count edu-gurus and academic-crushes. So I don’t want to dole out ‘likes’ or ‘hearts’.
Those of us who use Twitter as a professional and intellectual tool have been left without one of our favourite aspects of that tool; the ability to keep a log of those things which interest, intrigue or provoke us, without necessarily ‘liking’ them.
To some, Twitter’s new attempt to engage and build its user base might be a simple change of shape and colour, but shapes and colours carry meanings. A gold star is a symbol of quality. A red heart is a symbol of emotion. I love Twitter but want to engage with ideas in that space, not spew out feelings.
Bring back my gold star.
the édu flâneuse 
It’s such a misguided change. In one stroke of an emoji key, Twitter has removed all the nuances we love and replaced it with a bland alternative. I can only hope they come to their senses, much like when they thought it was a great idea to allow for long tweets. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, don’t mess with the poetry of Twitter.
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Hoorah for the un-besmirched poetry of Twitter, Sarah! This move is such a shame for the dedicated user, and I don’t think it’s going to incite a new, cool, heart-happy crowd to join the Twitterverse.
While Twitter is arguing that the heart is a versatile symbol, you’re right: it’s bland. It’s dumbing down and tarting up.
Deb
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Maybe,just maybe Twitter cares less about non-celebrity types
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Maybe, but trying to make itself more like other social media makes isn’t going to help Twitter be its own beast.
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I suspect that those who use Twitter purposefully will share your dismay Deb; few would argue that the switch has imposed restrictions on their behaviour. Perhaps however, the heart provides a clearer sense of intent? As you mention, people used the favourite in a variety of different ways. From a favouriter perspective, this is fine, because they know why they favourited a particular tweet. From the recipient’s end though, there’s the potential for ambiguity – why did they favourite that tweet?
I’m with you though and I too would like to be able to say ‘thank you’ or give a ‘high five.’ I don’t think we’re likely to see Twitter add further ions that satisfy our needs, so maybe, as so often has been the case, it’s up to us the community. A universal, but limited, emoji gallery perhaps? Or an extension of the RT/MT lexicon? TY for your post and please accept this HF 😉
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