Bruce Steinberg makes a fair point about the expanded, emoji-driven “likes” available on Facebook, of all platforms, as part of the discussion of “minimal viable social actions” and the questions of context and friction.

It feels good to “hear” the people with whom I spent 3 years in grad school “laugh” at a joke or “thumbs up” a production photo. Or have a ton of people in my community “heart” a post I make on the anniversary of an important mentor’s passing and remember when we all gathered in a theater to celebrate his life.

The fair point here, I think, is that this emoji-driven reactions carry more of an informational or emotional payload than do your standard “naked likes”. Arguably, there’s nothing inherently wrong with these sorts of “quick-reaction” approaches that straddle the line between full interaction and mere indication.

So, perhaps what I’d like to see is that the new minimum be reactions, not likes or favorites; recommendations, not retweets, reblogs, or reposts; and then of course written responses. Somewhere in there I’d still like highlights, which at least convey what, exactly, caught your attention.