Politics, news, athletes, artists, jokes and anecdotes - despite its simple concept, Twitter has become the home for an incredibly diverse field of topics and interests.

All these groups of people use Twitter in their very own way, utilizing common tools for different purposes. Whether they're bookmarking interesting stories or rewarding people for fancy puns, whether they congratulate their favorite sportsmen and sportswomen or express how they like the new music video of an upcoming band - all these actions have been accompanied by a universal yet fitting symbol: A star.

This star has now been taken away from us. Gone with it is the term "favorites". Now we "like" things and label them with hearts. What's the point? Liking something is much more personal, a heart expresses much clearer feelings than a star.

Do we want that? I don't. I'm not against spreading love and hearts, but this change simply feels like we've lost a part of the freedom we loved on Twitter. For me Twitter was such a universal one-of-a-kind tool where a star could mean anything from "I laughed hard" to "feel you, buddy" and from "you're absolutely right" to "interesting, I never thought of that".

It's simply not the same anymore. When I like something, I like it. This is not what has made Twitter so special for me. So ditch these hearts and bring back the stars.

Yours,
Philip