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comment by firethief
firethief  ·  3895 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Way We're All Writing Now

I think the origin may be a medium hack achieving the effect of "like if...". On some sites the notifications take the form of "X likes that feel when..." (where "like" is to be interpreted in the Facebook™ sense of +1 more than specifically enjoyment). From there it has spread to sites that don't display it that way because internet people are used to seeing the format (and who doesn't like a shibboleth), because it's cheap inclusiveness, and in some cases because the grammatical turbidity suggests emotional turmoil without outright saying anything.