Hmmm

I sometimes feel that responding with a generic Like is a lazy gesture, because it leaves people wondering what it symbolizes. It is ambiguously and intentionally vague, and begs both the question and the answer.

In Neanderthals, it was the primal grunting "hmmm" which developed into words for further clarification. The current version of "hmmm" is the Emoji. With an Emoji you don't even get the prosody attached to the gesture. At least with hmmm there would be a tonal variation.

"The protolanguage of Homo Egaster consisted of holistic utterances, each with its own meaning but lacking any meaningful subunits (words). For instance, a string of syllables such as tebima might have meant 'give that to her', and another such as mutapi might have meant 'give that to me'. In either case, nor in any other holistic utterance that one might imagine, will the individual syllables map onto any of the specific entities or actions and the meaning of the phrase. The closest types of utterance we have today are those like abracadabra, which might be translated as "I hereby invoke magic". Some scientists envisage hominids using such holistic utterances principally for the manipulation of other individuals, as commands, threats, greetings and requests." (Mithen, Steven. The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2007. 149)

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More relevant in the Comments:

How social media 'likes' create a conversation of connection

You might think linguistics professor Deborah Tannen would lament the effects of social media on how we communicate. Instead, she sees how it fills an essential need for connection, and the ways we've adapted the tools of "liking" and "tagging" to acknowledge the contributions that friends and family make to our lives.