Once upon a time, in the dark days before Facebook, reaction databases were limited to chemistry.
One day, people who were tired of composing responses coded the ability to simply “React” to a post, theoretically a biochemical reaction but more often than not, just someone trying to be kind.
Reaction choices were varied: Every emotion one could think of. Hundreds of emotional reactions were available.
Also, some services offered ratings of 1-10. Others a thumbs up and thumbs down. Some even allowed neutral.
But then came Facebook.
It was going to be the “Awesome!” button but thankfully, they settled upon like emoticon.
Recently, they expanded the range of available emotions.
Today, they released “Thankful”. Took a while for them to realize that some people are actually grateful and aren’t just all greedy money grabbers like themselves.
One day, they’ll add a very needed reaction: Noted.