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These hilarious tweets about the new Twitter hearts are real stars

While some people love Twitter's change of the fave icon, the switch has plenty of people annoyed. Here's what's in their hearts as #heartgate grows.

Leslie Katz Former Culture Editor
Leslie Katz led a team that explored the intersection of tech and culture, plus all manner of awe-inspiring science, from space to AI and archaeology. When she's not smithing words, she's probably playing online word games, tending to her garden or referring to herself in the third person.
Credentials
  • Third place film critic, 2021 LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards
Leslie Katz
twitterheart.jpg

Is star > heart or is heart > star?

Twitter

If you spend any time on Twitter, you probably noticed a lot of love on the site on Tuesday. Well, a lot of hearts anyway. A little red heart icon has usurped the familiar little yellow star icon used for expressing approval of others' 140-character musings.

Akarshan Kumar, a Twitter product manager, noted in a blog post that the star can confuse people (an assessment I, for one, find somewhat confusing). "The heart, in contrast, is a universal symbol that resonates across languages, cultures, and time zones," Kumar said. "The heart is more expressive, enabling you to convey a range of emotions and easily connect with people."

The heart icon is now known as a Facebook-style "like," but does anyone really like it? By midday Tuesday, about 80 percent of the tweets on the topic expressed approval, according to social-media analysis platform Brandwatch. But we couldn't help but love the tweets from and about the haters. Here, we share some of the venting.

Oh, and if you happen to be a heart hater yourself, don't be too brokenhearted. As Mashable reports, there's already a way to bring back the stars. Gizmodo even has a tutorial for replacing the heart with the emoji of your choice. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Watch this: Why Twitter's new hearts are stressing people out