My “want to be liked” comment was more related to social media and many people’s incessant need for approval. While I do think the “thumbs up/down” button is related to this, it’s not the same since you can’t see who voted for/against you. And many times a post gets no feedback, unlike the goal of social media which is feedback on EVERYTHING. It’s somewhat similar but not really.
Personally, it’s nice to see some posts get upvoted if I spent some time with research and writing it. Otherwise I don’t care.