@rrhoover Personally, I feel the opposite. Hearts feel like too strong a sentiment, given all of the romantic cultural underpinnings of the icon. (Tressie Cottom covers it fairly well: https://medium.com/message/faves...)
I'm not a huge fan of Medium's use of hearts either (which I bring up since I linked to it), but at least that context feels like it's connected to the article rather than the person. And alternate use cases for the feature (such as using Twitter's favorites as bookmarks, which I've done quite often) don't feel as beneficial or disconnected from the idea of "something I like". Twitter is far more personal, and getting a heart from someone just feels like it has more intimate undertones. (I don't think I use any other sites that use hearts for likes, so my context is admittedly limited.)
But, as has been pointed out, hearts are better for engagement. If that's what Twitter is focused on right now, of course they'll make the change.
Ha! I've grown to tolerate the hearts, despite the article I wrote in the heat of fervor on the day they hit my browser. (https://medium.com/@tikikate/the...)
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