The new Facebook reaction you might not have noticed

If ever there was a completely impersonal way to express your feelings towards a person, Facebook’s new digital reaction might just be it.

In honour of Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 8 the social media website revealed the ‘flower’ emoji.

Gone are the days when you could just ‘like’ something.

Of course, the other reactions — love, haha, wow, sad and angry — capture what you thought were the full range of emotions, but the ‘flower’ is actually Facebook’s way of allowing you to give thanks.

Aw! Those folks at Facebook are an emotional bunch.

The thankful reaction, perfectly represented with a purple flower, is said to be available for a strictly limited time according to Facebook.

It’s the first time the company has offered a temporary reaction since expanding on the ‘like’ button. It’s also not known if all Facebook users were given the opportunity to use the emoji.

But what happens after Mother’s Day? Well according to one source, the flower reaction will just simply disappear from your list of options. But if you happened to use the reaction at any time, it will still appear on those posts where it was used.

At least real flowers have a life span of more than a couple of days.

Did you get access to the ‘flower’ emoji? What is your favourite Facebook emotion?