I used to enjoy it, but over time I ended up in a similar boat. Just a huge bust of anxiety, especially socially. But on the other hand, I feel pretty okay in the day to day. I’ve come to see it as a sort of forced introspection - not necessarily revealing anything I don’t already know about, but bringing it all to the surface and forcing the mind to see it. In that respect, it could still be drawing a line between feeling and how things are going.

Not that it makes it necessarily more universal, but I think there’s a grain of truth.

I’ll be honest, for a minute I thought it was not a flaw but referring to “Monday Me, on Monday” which is a concept I can relate to

No my eyesight is fine, what are you on about?

N-no…

As a beard haver: them things are sharp when freshly cut. I experience this on a semi regular basis. Helps to soak your finger sometimes, then you gotta be careful not to break it when you pull it out.

I have never strongly identified as any particular religion, so if that is where you’re coming from this answer might not be helpful.

My parents both came from religious backgrounds, but they decided not to force me into any particular faith. When I was about 8, I started attending a Unitarian Universalist church, which certainly has religious tones but is very specific about accepting all kinds of faiths, choosing instead to focus on community.

As a result, I’ve been exposed to many different kinds of faith. I don’t tend to believe any creation myths or creators myself, at best I am agnostic. But I do believe that faith is an integral part of the human experience. Faith and hope are inextricably tied together, even if they don’t both show up to every family dinner, to strain a metaphor.

I may not have faith in a god or gods, but I find that sometimes I have faith in my fellow man. I hope the goodness of humanity will prevail. In much smaller terms, I have faith in my friends; I know that they will have my back when I need it. Every time I take a risk, I have at least a little faith that I’ll be okay at the end, or at least that I can pick myself back up.

Humans rely on faith for a lot of things, and in my opinion, that doesn’t have to look like God.

Not a big texter anyway but I’ve never run into anyone who even mentions it outside of techy friends.

Most of the technology subs I followed have migrated to some degree, but I’ve noticed a lot of “normie” subs are still stuck. For me in particular, r/Writing prompts, r/nosleep, and r/YoutubeHaikus are sorely missed.

I don’t think there’s really any one universal best answer, really. I agree with the idea that mirroring is the most fundamental answer. I try to ask questions too, where appropriate.

I think the personal historical context between the two parties is the important part here. Reading the article, I get the impression that this was not the first instance of these two conducting business in this way.

If the buyer has previous experience with the seller responding to a contract with a thumbs up and then processing to fulfill that contact, why wouldn’t they interpret that as acceptance in this case?

To use your own analogy, it would be like a couple who regularly texts 🍌🍆🥒🌭🍑🌋💧🏔️ - 👍 to indicate sexy times having one party reinterpret that meaning suddenly when it’s convenient for them.