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I see this symbol

+=+

a lot in youtube comments of French vloggers. I'm assuming its short-hand or slang referencing another word. What exactly does it mean?

3 Answers 3

13

It's not so much a slang as sort of an emoticon denoting: "Le positif amène le positif", as opposed to "Le négatif attire le négatif".

Si vous voyez tout en noir, la négativité n'apporte que de la négativité. En revanche, avoir l'esprit positif vous permet d'entrer dans un cercle vertueux, dans une spirale positive, dans laquelle, par exemple, une réussite entraîne une autre, ou encore votre attitude positive déteint sur le monde qui vous entoure.

4
  • Cool. I'm curious how this observation came to be a byword on French YouTube. What's the pragmatic/social significance of dropping this succinctly worded comment? That is, is it essentially praise, encouragement, or a reaction to something else in a vlog?
    – Luke Sawczak
    Aug 14, 2019 at 12:51
  • @LukeSawczak Luke, actually, if I came to know this, it's only because I often see my girlfriend use this type of emoticons in her IMs or Instagram posts. I'm pretty sure it's not just a Youtube thing. Anyway, she seems to use it in a context like "Happy me +=+ Happy you", hoping that every little happiness she finds in her daily life rubs off on others. Aug 14, 2019 at 14:09
  • So does it seem like a general blessing, not in response to any particular type of event or picture or comment?
    – Luke Sawczak
    Aug 14, 2019 at 14:25
  • @LukeSawczak Not quite. It can be a response as well; if you feel the same way, you can just send +=+ back. Aug 14, 2019 at 14:29
4

Seeing the responses I feel compelled to give you maybe an other light on this matter. We often disregard the influence of the things we don't know or don't understand. It was a saying, to say "le positif attire le positif" as the opposite of "le négatif attire le négatif". But it became more used and PARTICULARLY on the french YouTube because of Lena Situations. She's a french YouTuber, one of the biggest actually. She said that so much that it became her brand. "+=+" appears now on the line of clothes she was a part of with the brand Jennifer, and even is the title of her book. Because of her and her influence, it is now used as a way of expressing good feelings in general I guess. Hope it helps.

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  • 1
    We often disregard the influence of the things we don't know. Indeed, but isn't this statement a tautology?
    – jlliagre
    Oct 7, 2020 at 1:08
0

if this is surrounded with a circle, it means "zero + zero = la tête à toto" 😉😊

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