 Gen Zers are calling out the popular thumbs up emoji for being rude and hostile, even saying they feel attacked whenever they see it used in the workplace. After a Reddit poster confessed to being not adult enough to be comfortable with the thumbs up emoji reaction, others chimed in to agree and to call out other common emojis, such as the red heart. Quote, for younger people, the thumbs up emoji is really passive aggressive, a 24-year-old Redditor wrote.