This is a 2-in-1 question, I suppose. I type the way I do. I’ve always typed this way, but I’ve noticed when interacting with people (not on here) that people always think I’m far older than 19. They think I’m in my forties or fifties.
Also, I tend to type using full stops, which people may think are rude. When I’m typing a full sentence, though, I end it with a period. If I say, “He’s being an asshole,” (with a period), I mean that as a fact, not out of anger. It just happens to be ended with a period since it’s a sentence.
To me, sentences ending in a period feel immutable, and without nuance, but sentences without a period feel incomplete, or up to change. Without periods it is almost a way to say, “this is what I think right now, but I might reconsider.” So, it’s not that periods are rude per-se, but it may appear that you’ve made up your mind and are closed off to interpretation. Sometimes I intentionally remove periods or turn it into an ellipsis for exactly that reason. It’s just way too easy to misinterpret people’s intentions through text for me not to type in a way I think reduces misinterpretation.
As for being associated with older people… anecdotally speaking, my co workers sound like they were taught that there is an immutable, proper way in the world, and so they express themself in that proper way. Nothing wrong with that really! Once I get a feel for their personality, I find it kind of endearing :)
because typing with poor grammer is more common on phones. lol.
Cell phone grammar is primarily the absense of grammar. The thumbtyping generation has lost the ability to communicate in a precise, concise manner.
Sadly this also reflects other problems like attention deficits and horrible argumentation skills.
If people want to abbreviate their words and phrases when they’re texting or whatever, fine. Skip the capitals and punctuation, fine. But it is never rude to use proper spelling and grammar, even when texting. Your friends need to unplug, read a book, and enrich their fucking brains.
It’s not rude, it is polite. But friends want to be close to each other, not polite
I’m not sure if it’s part of the reason, but you’re sentences are all rather short, therefore the periods and commas are repeated a lot.
Because those of who grew up communicating a lot via the written word stopped feeling beholden to type using classic grammar rules like ending every sentence of every communication with a period no matter what.
The entire purpose of language is to express yourself, and people started noticing that their texts sounded friendlier if they sounded less abrupt, so they started typing that way.
You type according to traditional essay writing rules which is how older people learned to write, younger people learned to focus on producing natural sounding language and conversation.
I guess because people under 20 type like illiterates that if you type correctly, using proper punctuation and spelling and what not, they assume you have to be older.
Brodie tf u generalizing all us u20s for?
I don’t want to agree. Also, I often agree.
I had to read this three times to make sense of your grammar; so now I assume you’re under 20. ;-)
The idea of periods being rude or something is moronic.
I’ve never had one, but they seem to be assholes in general. Cramps, bleeding, unwanted hormone surges.
It’s simply linguistic evolution, and I find it interesting how the internet has shaped language. Writing on the internet tends to be very short and conversation-like, so if you want to get a point across there’s no need for a full stop. This meant, that when people put full stops at the end of messages on the internet, it started being seen as more formal and serious, which became a tone marker
linguistic evolution
“Usage dictates form” is how vapid influencer bimbos are driving English into the dumpster. French evolves: it has a committee to weed out stupid. English has no such guidance, and that’s why it trends toward an appearance we’d call ‘platypodian’ if we could only find some instagram bimbo to promote it.
French evolves: it has a committee to weed out stupid.
How are you going to stop people from using these “stupid” evolutions? That’s just not how language works. If this is really something France does, I’d imagine what they’d end up with is dictionaries that don’t at all match how people really speak.
Well, I only know that people who don’t end their sentences properly sound like rambling idiots.
end their sentences properly
Well, with the justice system these days…
I’m guessing you’re in your forties or fifties
True.
no offense, but mature people wouldnt ask this question. its attention-seeking behavior often found in children.
What does this have to do with maturity? The post didn’t even seem like it came from insecurity, merely curiosity.
There’s a linguistic shift happening where people tend to not use periods in short form communications (sms, dms, etc…). So older people who may not be as plugged in to the youth culture sill use them. So it only makes sense someone would be seen as older if they did.
E: avoiding certain wording. Nothing substantive.
I’d say it’s more insecurity
I think it’s trying to understand society and his place in it. These aren’t bad questions. At a certain point you rather know where you fit and other people be damned. But at 19, your trying to understand how other people think still. You have your own thought process and are still getting used to other adults not processing information the way you do.
What an insensitive take
Oh? Thanks for your input. Well, I’m a mere 19 year old.
This community is literally called “no stupid questions”. Don’t worry about it.
if you say so. not sure why it matters
You could shut the fuck up then instead of damaging a space called “no stupid questions” you started punching down at this kid.
Seriously go take a time out sit in s corner and actually think about what you have done
You just said why it matters in your previous post
- *comment, not “post.” This whole thing is one post that we’re all forming comment chains on.
- I think he meant he doesn’t see why OP made this post in the first place at all, though I could be wrong.
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I make this mistake all the time. Thanks for catching it! Maybe one day I’ll remember.
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Huh. Good idea. I dunno, either.
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I’ll say that, and I’ll know from the downvotes just who needed to hear it.
deleted by creator
Good one!
Because old people like me view written correspondence as less disposable. When jotting down personal notes, we don’t worry about spelling or punctuation, but writing a letter? You double check that shit so there isn’t documentation of how illiterate you are!
Youth grew up with texting. It’s designed to be fast and efficient. Sup? OMG 👍 They just need to get the point across, it’s not a grammar competition.
Neither is right or wrong, it’s just a generational difference.
Well where else am I supposed to get my practice in for the Junior Grammar Rodeo
it’s not a grammar competition.
While I agree that there’s less of an expectation of grammar, informal text communication has definitely developed grammar of its own. OP mentioned full stops, for example — ending a message with one is a tone marker now
Full stops are slowly becoming a separator instead of a terminator in colloquial chats, which I find interesting, since some scripts use an equivalent character like that
Ooh, that’s interesting. I’m not really sure what to look for here, could you give me an example of a language/script that has that?
Young people focus on the tone they’re conveying.
Old people focus on following the rules that were beaten into them as children for no reason.
That’s a good way of framing it.
Oh, no. It’s wrong. Punctuation makes everything clear!
There is absolutely no difference between “no” and “No.”. Both can be understood perfectly well.
It made everything clear back when everything was hand written or done on a type writer. This mattered as paper wasn’t infinite.
Much of modern communication is done in bubbles on screens, so the punctuation doesnt matter as much as it used to.
That said, run-on sentences and word salad are quite common which makes for some entertaining yet stroke inducing screenshots.
The so-called “rules” of language arent actually rules. They are observations. Language use has greatly evolved over time, and schools teach the rules as they know them, forgetting that even a hundred years ago, it was different.
Or … If you can’t understand it unless they spell it out for you, there may be a deficiency on your end.
Lol
I’m glad you thought it was funny.
Evidently it hit a little too close to home for others.
Older people grew up writing less than younger people have, because of texting, so they’re more accustomed to taking their time with the proprieties of grammar. Younger people began using grammar as a tone marker differently from how it had previously been used, so they tend to see a bigger difference between “no” and “No.” as an answer to a question than older people do. For younger people, the latter tends to seem more abrupt and final, which could come across rudely.
accustomed to taking their time
Taking time to do it right? What fucking losers. Wait; why did my heart monitor stop workin--------
They didn’t say do it right, they said do it with propriety, as in making sure to follow the rules for the sake of following the rules.
I am only assume it’s because your written communication is of a higher standard than your contemporaries. Keep it up.
Quit typing so bigoty, boomer. /s
Sorry, what?
Turn your hearing aid up!
Hearing aids and being called a boomer. Now I have OPs problem.
It was funnier before coffee. I was insinuating that your written language belied your age, thus making you a boomer. Chalk it up to morning fogginess.
The way you type is like any other form of self-expression. If others want to read into it or decide they don’t like it, that’s on them. Type however you like and don’t give it another thought.
YES IM JUST EXPRESSING MYSELF, ITS TOTALLY EVERYONE ELSES FAULT FOR FEELING OFF-PUT BY MY TYPING STYLE. THERE DEFINITELY ARENT SOCIAL NORMS AND CONTRACTS THAT WE ALL FOLLOW TO BE ABLE TO EASILY AND ACCURATELY COMMUNICATE.
TYPE HOWEVER YOU WANT BROTHER AROOOO
I don’t see how typing style is much different from things like slang or making references. If you can be understood by the people you’re communicating with, great!
I agree with you there, but the key is the last part about being understood. In OP’s case they’re insisting on using a formal writing style that makes the average person perceive their message with an unintended tone.
@magnetosphere I feel like society imposes way too many rules that don’t make sense, hence they cause lots of misunderstandings like this. I’m not sure if it’s the English graduate in me or what, but I always write on the Internet as though I was speaking to someone, and I’ve never really thought about it, although I’ll be honest and admit my own guilt in criticizing other people‘s writing styles. But that’s more the English grad side of me, not shutting up I think.
I’ve seen certain parts of the internet develop “accents” as well in ways of typing.
What do you mean?
Like slang and acronyms that appear more in various communities and chatrooms, or Minecraft servers, people start using them more.
The obvious examples are people typing in Scots or AAVE but that’s more just phonetic transcription of existing language.
This video is ten years old so the examples are outdated but the idea is sound.
Scots is its own language with its own writing system, people have been writing in Scots for centuries before the internet and it’s not just colloquial. Scottish English is seperate, being an actual dialect, but there is an English-Scots dialect continuum so finding the exact difference is hard
This forces my own question
People can tell my age just by my punctuation or lack thereof?
Yes, each generation has words or a style of typing that they grew up or had to adapt to.
IIRC Boomers and Gen Z use more emoji than Gen X and Y.
Millenials grew up with keyboards, so they tend to type full sentences, punctuation, shit like that. With Gen X being a toss-up.
Boomers tend to use formal language, but they suck at distilling their thoughts into something another human person can understand. (Boomer ramblings on Facebook)
Wish I could find the article that broke it down, but search engine sludge makes any question about generations into links to quizzes.
Im in disguise now
Bet the skibidi, my bussin bro
fr fr no cap
Apparently so. People think the fact that I use proper grammar makes me around forty or fifty.
Is your intention to convey a certain tone or win a grammar competition?
Kind of. There is one punctuation tell that you can typically use to tell if someone is older, and thats if they use ellipsis to separate thoughts rather than line breaks in informal settings.
Back in the day when you were writing on paper, space was a limited resource, so people that are more used to that will separate ideas with a ‘…’ rather than starting a new paragraph because you can fit more text into a smaller footprint.
Come the turn of the millennium, digital writing became the norm and people that grew up surrounded by computers tend to use line breaks instead because space is not limited in the same way anymore.
Or we write […] to indicate we’ve removed words from a direct quotation
I don’t think people use an ellipsis as a pseudo-line break… They use it for pacing. It’s just a pause within the same thought most of the time.
This is the first time I’m reading this sort of thing and I wouldn’t be too sure of it because I’m a millennial who intermittently uses ellipses, haha.
It’s pretty normal for language to vary between generations, it’s just that we all communicate via text a lot more now, so differences in punctuation usage have become noticeable parts within those language variations
