Ok might be a little long as it was rather a long conversation with him, but in a nutshell;

- teen’s certainly do NOT overthink the ‘like’ button

- they simply like it, full stop

- the don’t think too deeply into the ‘like’ they just like it and thats it

- they don’t want to comment

- teens don’t comment on posts/notes as thats not how they communicate online

- they wouldn’t value zaps as they prefer likes

- it’s definitely not for self validation at all, they just like it cause they like it!

- the reason teens love tiktok is due to the ‘like’ button and in their world it matters, not so much for again validation but more about its just the way they communicate

- if ‘likes’ were taken away from any platforms then the teens would definitely not be interested

This is purely from a teen’s perspective and again I will stress that he has spoken to his friends about this both males and female teens and they all agree on this.