How Do You Use Twitter Favourites?

I have a question. SAI recently featured the graph above in their 'Chart Of The Day' feature showing the way in which favouriting of Tweets has taken off since interactions were included in the '@' section and incorporated under the 'Discover' tab. Since this had made favouriting more of a public thing, they suggest that the activity has quickly developed into a kind of Twitter 'fist-bump', or their answer to Facebook's or Instagram's 'Like'. 

Since the changes I've found myself using Twitter favourites a lot more and if the number of people favouriting my own tweets is anything to go by, so have many others. Except I don't use it in the way that SAI suggest. I use it instead to bookmark tweets in situations where I think it looks interesting but don't have time now to click through and read the piece that is being shared (often when I'm on the move or have poor connection). So for me, it's more akin to Instapaper functionality than Facebook. My hunch is that this is a very common behaviour but I'm genuinely curious to understand if I'm right or wrong in thinking that. So I thought I'd do a quick poll to find out. I'd really appreciate your view (if there is a different way in which you use the functionality, please tick 'other' and feel free to explain more in the comments) and will of-course share the results. So my question is: how do you use Twitter favourites?

Comments

[Phil Adams]

Hi Neil. For me it's an asymmetric dynamic. It's really nice to see your updates getting favourited, so it feels on the receiving end like a like. But I don't think many people are favouriting for that purpose. It's not meant as a like by the favouriter, but it feels like one to the favouritee. A nice social side effect.

[neilperkin]

Thanks Phil - that's a good perspective

[Johanna]

I made a poll just like this once, curious about the same thing! The majority of people who voted had your behavior - saving stuff to read later. I myself Favorite tweets that are either hilarious or worded in an awesome way, to refer to later when I need a boost.

[neilperkin]

Thanks Johanna - that's useful

[John]

Vast majority of prompted online use is self-focussed.

[Olivier]

I can't but recommend Tweebot's feature "send link to Instapaper"

[Will]

Things that amuse me, largely...periodically, reports/research that is insightful or useful in some way.