Twitter imposes a monopoly of the heart – Le Figaro

The social network in 140 characters has made a small change that has outraged many members: Replace the stars of “favorites” with red hearts

Many readers of Le Figaro are not on Twitter. If it’s good news for productivity, they still are missing the most important technological information of the day: the favorites are gone. This feature, previously represented by a star, was the equivalent of “likes” on Facebook, or on Google+ one of thumbs-up on YouTube. The “fav” as they say in the jargon, was protean enough to mean everything and anything. It served to mark its approval to set aside an article for later reading, to report a lover or professional interest. There were even “favs” ironic even hateful. Those days are gone. Twitter has replaced a sudden one, the stars with hearts. Tweets are not “added to favorites” but “loved” as the publications of Facebook.

“You can say a lot with a heart!” defends the social network in the blog post that has this revolution. “In our previous tests, we found that people loved [their use].” Alas, most users that will certainly accustomed to feature next week, are for now split between amazement and disgust. How to affix a red heart passion on a tweet that tells a fatal accident, while one could mark the tweet of a star to find it later? Can a heart could be mistaken for an attempt at seduction?

Twitter, struggling for several months to recruit new followers, is not intended primarily to its power users. “We know that sometimes the stars could be confusing, especially for new users,” says the company. With this change, Twitter shows its vocation to be a less professional, more mainstream. The “Like” is similar to Facebook, even if a heart implies a greater emotional involvement than white thumb.

The scope of the reactions to this change demonstrates the importance of this first level interaction. This is a feature that exists on almost all social networks. Since the first Internet forums, users have sought codes to express their approval. +1 Google+ is a direct heir of messages posted by users of Usenet forums.

The companies are also very vigilant on the impact of the “fav”, the “like” or ” inch”. The solution is often chosen determines the atmosphere on the network. The favorite star is a neutral and professional symbol, which is also located in Gmail. She is losing ground in the heart of Tumblr or Instagram, social networks as Twitter more personal tone.

While Twitter is approaching with Facebook “likes”, the social network Mark Zuckerberg has begun to challenge the hegemony of his thumb iconic white. It begins testing “Facebook Reactions”, which offers users a range of emotions from laughter to tears. YouTube, for its part, a system “to Julius Caesar” of thumbs up or thumbs down.

Twitter teams therefore hope that hearts will allow the public to spend the best moments on the social network. Jack Dorsey and his staff work to make the system more user friendly. In July, Twitter allowed users to post their birthdays. On this happy day, balloons will appear on your profile.