Likes UP

Likes UP

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The Blog

Likes UP is for legacy worthy leaders, professionals, entrepreneurs, and visionaries where human discernment counts in the age of AI. Articles on wisdom, legacy, "enhavim—purpose and mission led by vision," and navigating the Masterwork Years.

LikesUP.com by Sherrie Rose

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The Concept

More Than Thumbs Up

👍Thumbs Up

⭐Star Rating

🗳️Vote

❤️Like

Likes UP represents the liking phenomenon in full — social media, star ratings, voting, reviews, and every form of social proof both online and off. The thumbs up image has entered the mainstream through Facebook, YouTube, and social liking. People want likes incrementing up, and up, and up.

Star ratings are a form of Likes UP for recommendations and reviews. Voting is a form of Likes UP. The list goes on.

Bottoms up. Heads up. Thumbs up. Likes UP.

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History

The Thumbs Up Through Time

Ancient Rome

In the context of gladiators in combat, thumbs down was the signal to condemn a defeated gladiator to death. Thumbs up meant he should be spared.

Medieval Times

Desmond Morris traced the practice back to a medieval custom used to seal business transactions.

World War II

Pilots on U.S. aircraft carriers used the thumbs up to alert deck crews they were ready to go. The gesture's popularization in America is largely attributed to this practice.

Scuba Diving

The thumbs up signals a diver is ready to stop and ascend. New divers sometimes gesture thumbs up meaning approval, accidentally signaling they want to end the dive.

Basketball

When a held ball occurs, an official jerks both thumbs in the air to signal a jump ball.

Hitchhiking

The thumb extended toward oncoming traffic is the universal signal for requesting a ride.

International Caution

In parts of the Middle East, West Africa, South America, Iran, and Sardinia, the thumbs up carries a deeply negative meaning. Context and culture change everything.

The Mechanics

Increment UP, UP, UP

An increment is an increase — either fixed or variable. In programming, increment operators increase a value by one. In social media, the increment is the number that ticks upward every time someone clicks, likes, shares, or votes.

On Facebook, clicking the Like icon increments the number beside it upward. The name of the person who liked it appears. When many people like something, the number grows and the text reads "people like this." Comments and shares follow the same logic — a number that keeps count of every person who chose to engage.

Every platform has built its own version of the increment. The number going up is the signal. It tells the next person that others have already decided this is worth their attention.

Up is the only direction that matters.

Social Proof

Popularity as Social Proof

Websites allow users to approve or disapprove of items — comments in a forum, products in an online store, other people's reviews — by clicking either a thumbs up or thumbs down. In the aggregate, this becomes a rating system that others rely on to make decisions.

Users can see the total number of thumbs up and thumbs down, or simply the net number. An item with ten of each reads as zero, not as ten endorsements and ten objections. Often users can view lists ordered by popularity, ranked by this metric.

What is most remarkable about a popular YouTube video is the view count. By clicking to watch, you automatically increment the counter. One video captured at the time of writing had over 6.8 million views, over 85,000 thumbs up, and over 4,000 thumbs down. Every one of those numbers is a person who made a choice.

Popularity is a form of social proof. And social proof is one of the most powerful forces in human decision-making.

Persuasion

Cialdini Named It Liking

Likes UP is a compilation of all the ratings, reviews, and incrementing forms of social proof both online and offline. Robert Cialdini identified Liking as a foundational principle of persuasion, stating that people are more likely to say yes to individuals they know, like, or find attractive.

A true, heartfelt recommendation from a trusted friend never needs to pass through the digital domain or social media. You can give a Likes UP with words or actions. Very often it will be the thumbs up gesture. And very often it will be something far more personal than a click, a tap, or a swipe.

Likes UP. The liking phenomenon in full.

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