When someone hearts my response in text or social media, I often feel dismissed.
Why?
Because that's what I'm sort of maybe doing when I heart someone's response.
Instead of meaning the intended I love what you've said...I think the heart tends to mean one of the following.
1. I hear you. I'm fine with what you said. But I have no idea how to respond.
2. I hear you. But I think this conversation has reached it's end point.
3. Thanks for commenting but I have 50 zillion comments and can't give a personal reply to everyone. (not the case for me but I imagine the case for influencers)
It's a difficult thing.
I feel a little rejected when I get a heart instead of an actual response. I also feel a bit guilty when I do the same to others.
But I think it's kind of a part of life.
I don't know of an alternative.
I don't think it's technically rude to respond with just-a heart.
One thing I try to do is remind myself...if I'm feeling rejected...that it might be less about rejection and more about the person feeling awkward and shy.
Because that's usually the case for me. When my hearting = not having more to say, it usually doesn't mean that I'm looking down at the person with derision. It's often me feeling intimidated...feeling that I won't be able to match their cleverness or humor.
I think I have close to the same amount of social anxiety with texting, commenting, emailing as I do with in-person and phone conversations.
Wait...I feel I should clarify something.
I think the heart is different when responding to the actual social media post. Since most of my followers totally ignore my posts, getting a heart feels like a big deal. And when I heart someone's post, it usually means: I love this, I like this, I totally agree, or I would totally repost this except I've already spammed my followers too much today.
What I'm referring to above is when someone comments on a post, and then the response to that comment is a heart.
I hope that makes sense.
