Not all likes are alike

It bugs me a little bit how the hearting system here can mean so many things, often not even translating to someone actually liking your content.

For example, some likes are given to everybody who made the effort to post a reply. It's basically a participation trophy.

Some likes are given to your friends just because they're your friends and you want to show them support.

Some likes are given purely out of pity whenever the post evokes sadness, as if clicking a button will make their burden a little easier to bear.

If you're a girl, you can expect to get a lot of likes from simply from simps looking to curry favor with you.

Some likes are used to show solidarity behind ideas, even if the post itself was a low-rent political attack. I guess dogpiling more hearts than the other guy means your point of view must be superior.

Sometimes likes are used to end a conversation. A way of saying "I hear you, but I don't wish to continue talking about it"

And as mildly annoying as it can be seeing the 'upvote' feature be abused in a way that leaves this much open to interpretation, maybe that's just a sign that it's a very convenient multi-purpose tool that serves many general purposes.

It's kinda like the word 'f*ck'. You can use it in a variety of ways and determine the meaning based primarily on the context