Sf certain words came out of 2023 damaged, this is certainly the case with “react”. The definition of Larousse – “respond in a certain way to an action, to an event” – does it apply to the notification “Stéphanie reacted to your message”, when Stephanie sent a heart in response to “rather at 5 p.m.” ? Can we say that Lucas reacted to his mother’s message when he responded with a thumbs up to “Happy New Year to you, it’s snowing here… I hope you like your gift, will we see you on Sunday for the cake?” » ?
WhatsApp started offering to “react” in 2022; in the latest redesign of Slack messaging, a “reactions” line was highlighted by the interface in the same way as the messages received. Almost all apps now allow you to “react”. As a result, reaction notifications playing ping-pong with each other lead millions of people to reach for their phones and say: ” What is he saying ? Ah, actually, nothing…”
These strings of reactions come from a group composed on the one hand of overexcited people unable to close an exchange and on the other hand of overwhelmed, tired, reluctant to move their finger more than three times on the screen of their smartphone. Together, they created a round of acknowledgments. According to the Jevons paradox – which says that improving the effectiveness of a product can lead to greater use of this product – they never stop reacting through interposed platforms.
How do we recognize them?
WhatsApp over-reactors have grandparents who couldn’t be the first to hang up the phone, parents who wondered after how many emails they were no longer required to respond.
The lazy ones have parents who complained ten years ago about those who responded with a text message rather than a phone call and are now happy with six-word text messages. Since they only receive hearts and thumbs up, their parents miss the days when they could complain about punctuation rules or the use of capital letters in text messages.
How they speak
“Léa added a “I love” to “Perfect!” » “It’s a nice lazy thing.” If the panda had a smartphone, he would do the same. » “A green check mark means “well received”. » “The thumbs up can be passive aggressive, it says ‘no one will tell me I didn’t respond’. » “I’m in a chatty WhatsApp group. I don’t understand why they don’t put emojis instead of comments. » “I can see that there are people who send real sentences. If they have time…” “It’s a way of saying “I’m interested in this thread and I’m reading it” when it’s not entirely true. » “It’s still better than answering “noted”. » “We are still not going to write “I read, thank you”. » “Fireworks to signal enthusiasm, it’s not very original. » “The heart is more and more generous, it spreads love with little commitment. »
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