In real life, your friend tells you a moderately funny story that happened to him. You tell the friend, "nice story" (that's a like).

Another friend tells you a super funny story. You then go and tell other friends this same funny story. (that's a boost).

Different real life things, that are captured by digital tools.

What I have a problem with are quote tweets, which are like talking about someone in front of them, without including them in the conversation.

Because I don’t want to boost or add the toot to a perma-list, I just want to give the person that posted something I like some acknowledgement.