That's not really how 👀 is used these days among the young folk, but I wouldn't expect a random Canadian farmer to know that either.
I don't think that a thumbs up emoji should be a valid signature. The farmer was responding to "please confirm flax contract" and the thumbs up emoji really could mean "I've seen your text and will look at the contract to confirm/deny soon." Although the article did also mention that the same type of acceptance had happened previously with this farmer where the contracts were treated as valid and fulfilled so the farmer is probably disingenuous with their argument.
It's more like "look at this shit"/"you seeing this?"/“whoa” for general stuff. Or sometimes with a slightly inappropriate joke or flirting the eyes acknowledge that and lessen it - like saying jk did back in the day.
In this context if I sent a contract to someone younger and they responded 👀 I might have to doublecheck if something was glaringly wrong with it.
That's interesting. It's wild how emojis are actually the closest thing we have to a universal language, but that language is still new enough that meanings are very fluid and open to interpretation.
Many times I've gotten the thumbs up as a way to indicate that someone received a message, however it'll only be read later, it can mean that they're doing smt at the moment.
A lot of people hate being "left on read" where they see a programmed read receipt but aren't actually acknowledged. Or for messages without programmed read receipts it does that as well. The thumbs up is also supposed to end conversations quickly.