I actually like the space before the question mark. It makes me think of someone doing that exaggerated high pitch at the end of a question, as opposed to just asking it normally.
Sometimes when I’m asking a question that’s not urgent or just... kinda not really a big deal but I’m curious. As in “can you pick up eggs at the store?” Verses “not that big of a deal, but mind picking up some cookies ??” Like a pause lmao
I'm a millennial and I often do that with question marks, or I try to avoid using them unless I can't get around it. Never really thought about it, but I suspect it's because I get anxious about asking people things. As for the capitalization, I've seen that with boomers quite a few times and always wondered why some people are so into it.
I really love the use of ellipsis. I text the way I speak, and those three little dots are a very clear way to show that I paused to think about what I'm about to say. I think a lot of text sounds very certain of itself, given that the reader doesn't see the pauses that the writer took to think about what they're saying. I want to bring that in, to make sure that you understand that I'm putting thought into it, and sometimes even struggling to put my feelings into words.
I definitely overuse ellipses. I'm trying to cut down on it though, since I as a teacher need to communicate with my students (who are around 16-18). And apparently, while I use the ellipsis as a way of "softening" a sentence, like letting it "trail off", or to add a pause… They have wildly different interpretations. But I mourn the loss of the ellipsis, because I think it's so very useful and I've yet to see a cross-generationally functional alternative.
Lol was supposed to mean that you are actually laughing, but now it seems to be used for things even if they are only mildly amusing. So literally saying lol could be used for something that is funny, but not funny enough to actually, laugh. out. loud.
I typically use lol as a like momentarily amused thing i guess? Like that’s funny but also i diddnt really react. Normally when i actually laugh i just go ‘pfft’.
I found one of the hardest things to teach was how to know when to use what style. Yes, your sentence was real, but you can't write like that on the state test. My painfully old person texting (and writing here) is made worse by the fact that I was an English major, LOL.
@@mgailp This is the real takeaway that us English teachers have to instruct. We need to validate students' ways of expressing themselves while also teaching that there's this other way of doing things that they need to learn that is very useful in specific contexts that they'll encounter several times throughout their lives (and for many continuous years).
@@WMDistraction I highly recommend Gretchen McCulloch's _Because Internet_ if you don't already have it - it's a linguist's look at how informal written styles have developed with increased communication over the internet.
Ok, so I know the thumbnail says “why parents text weird,” but for a split second I thought it said “Why text? Parents weird.” And that’s honestly infinitely better in my eyes 😂
@@answerinprogress Yeah suuuuuuuure Sabrina, do you really think we're going to buy that?!? We all know you're just a robot built by big corporations1!!!!!1!1!1!! (Loved that video ahaahhah)
for some reason reading "how are youuuuu?" sent shivers down my spine idk if its just a me thing but if felt like the person DEFINITELY does not actually want to talk about how you are lmaoooo pain
I know exactly what you mean. I see "how are youuuuu?" and I immediately think "this person is asking me that as an excuse to talk about themselves. on MSN."
The way parents adapt to informal writing is so interesting my dad texts like he’s writing emails but my mom goes the other way on the formality scale and uses emojis for everything
My mom once told me how she almost said "lol" aloud once and it scared me The robot uprising is secondary, the parent slang uprising is the primary threat
I'm sure there's a men and women aspect to that. Emojis denote a less aggressive or casual/friendly tone vs a straight forward more formal tone and I find many women use emojis in a business sense compared to my experiences with men in a business sense.
So I'm awkward in person and now the online community I've been a part of for the past 23 years is just gonna decide my typing is awkward too. Fantastic.
This comment isn't awkward though! In a very concise and humorous way you successfully express how you feel about this kind of judgment of your style of text-based communication, and while sarcasm is sometimes lost in text, it certainly wasn't in this case! I don't think that any person that will die on the hill of defending a series of commas instead of ellipsis, never using capitalized letters, and avoiding punctuation because it's too "aggressive" has any ground to stand on when it comes to criticizing people who are a bit more formal or traditional in their style of communication... It's kinda like showing up in PJ's on casual friday and making sure everyone wearing jeans that day knows that they, in your opinion, aren't as good at dressing casually. It's just really silly lol. Context matters. If someone is always wearing a suit, a t-shirt and jeans is pretty casual. If someone uses proper punctuation and capitalization in casual conversation all of the time, it's kinda weird to read something into it other than it being how they prefer to communicate in text. It's good to have things that we all agree on to communicate things efficiently, but there is something about correcting language or communication in some settings that just rubs me the wrong way. It's often where a lot of ageist and racial bias, as well as entitlement, comes to play.
I always type with mostly-correct grammar and capitalisation (with the addition of some purposeful changes like never putting the comma inside the quotes, instead only quoting verbatim), and often end up writing things like an essay, and I think sometimes people interpret it as too formal.
This is somewhat related to the video, but does anyone else find themselves mirroring other people's writing style? If I'm in a convo with a friend who says lol instead of haha, I'll find myself switching to lol. If I'm texting my mom, I use proper punctuation and grammar because she does. I just think it would be an interesting experiment to see how naturally people could fake each other's informal writing style after texting them for an hour or so, perhaps without knowing that they were going to be asked to fake the writing style so they wouldn't be trying to study it or anything. Great video!
Yes, exactly! I also switch between writing styles when texting different people. The changes happen in the emoji, sentence structure, punctuation, tone of the message and the level of sophistication areas. It’s interesting, but the more I get to know someone, the more comfortable I am with writing in my own style. Plus, I noticed my friends do that as well! They write things I usually text them, so that’s also interesting. ALSO! It depends on the language I’m writing in! I’d type this whole comment completely differently in my native language lol
I'm pretty sure that'd be considered like code-switching or something. I have found myself picking up features of other's texts like how I'm putting periods instead of just a long list right now. Also, about three years ago I didn't even know what "XD" meant (I originally thought it was referring to "Disney XD" instead of it being a laughing face) and now I use it in every other sentence basically. Tis a very fun and interesting how our brains work, psychology is immensely entertaining and wonderous
I've noticed a friend of mine and I trying to mimic each other's writing styles, so we end up just flipping through different styles in our conversations. It's a very interesting experience reading through our chats.
@@cadborosa I actually had to find out myself (by searching online) what things like "lol" and "XD" meant (and since I was 8 and didn't know as much English as I do now, I had every right not to be aware), but I soon found myself using them more because of the internet and of course - my friends 😁
yeah i usually am too lazy to capitalize correctly when texting (I'm German, so every noun is capitalized), only when I'm trying to come across as serious (talking to supervisors or explaning stuff I know something about for sure) or if I'm anonymously posting something on the interwebs 😂 yeah I want to make an impression on those that don't know me as a friend
there's the aesthetic of lowercase typing, for sure, and additionally there's contextualizing that aesthetic on different parts of the web, where lends it a different tone. i think nothing of lowercase typing on some old livejournal communities where it's all but expected. but seeing lowercase typing on linkedin? damn.
I can capitalise the Words for EMPHASIS too, though - without writing in all lowercase. It is most certainly, Possible, a Thing that one can Do, formal or informal, it can be Done.
Someone pointed out to me that younger people online tend to not use periods in general and now I'm HYPER AWARE of how unnecessarily often I used periods 😬
I'm one of the few people in the group of people I know who uses periods for nearly all of their texts. And I just became legally considered an adult less than a month ago. Guess I'm just weird.
I recall multiple instances where this one particular friend would end her text messages with periods and it would make me pause and feel oddly a bit hurt, but then I remember her saying to me in person that she is always grammatically correct when she texts. It’s important to remember that each individual has their own grammar rules when speaking as well as informally writing.
On the other hand, I've had too many situations online where not having periods made messages sent to me mean the opposite of what the person meant to say ... Though I'm probably more in your boat of using them more than I need to?
I think the first one is the fake tweet, simply because its the only one where the I and I'm are capitalized. The rest of them have exclusively lower case letters.
My granny got a smart phone for the first time fairly recently… she only had a wallphone before, and would regularly send us mail… and when she learned texting it was really cool seeing the transition… she would try to fit an entire conversation within one short text, everything was properly capitalized and punctuated, and best of all, she ended all her texts with “-love granny ❤“
Y’all Milennials are like late thirties, and with the rapidity moving internet speech we don’t expect you to always get it. Also it’s not everyone’s ✨personal taste✨
@@alexajackson3655 I'm a millennial and I've been tracking with the evolving internet speech since I was 12 back in y2k- when typing LiKe tHiS didn't even mean sarcasm yet. afaik the sarcasm in it now is derived from mocking ourselves from back then, the way we thought it was somehow innovative and quirky to put in the effort for full sentence like that 😂😅😳 unless I've just always been a dork,,,, WAIT😱 tl;dr ~ respecc ur barely olders mate ~ 😌😌 varies from person to person tho
Since I never used Twitter, did not know double commas were a thing. -- since I've not yet looked at the style guide, I don't think I yet understand them. Thank you for sharing. Double commas always meant missing data in a column of a CSV file to me before now.
On one hand, 100%. On the other hand, I see this a lot with less-online people--punctuating questions as sentences. I'd love to figure out where that's coming from. In the workplace, a request "Could you do this for me," but ending with a period? Seems *real* rude.
@@TheWordsmythe You wouldn't want a politely worded command at work to do something to be interterpreted as optional, would you? Which is why "Please do this task." is phrased that way if its a job instead of "Could you do this task for me?" which is for outside the job description, a favour and optional. I see no rudeness in making sure the optional/not optional unless you want consequences distinction in a work environment shouldn't be clear, otherwise you might have to explicitly say the always underlying implicit threat, which is gauche. The difference lies in whether "No." is an acceptable response - always acceptable in the second instance, never acceptable in the first instance. Clear communication for the win.
@@TheWordsmythe Sometimes I ask a question and accidentally hit period instead of question mark. But I’ll go back and correct it before it doesn’t make sense.
Tom Scott did a video a while back on "phatic expressions" that takes an interesting view about this as well. Basically, phrases like "you're welcome" and the like don't have much meaning outside of the basic politeness they convey, and these things change generationally (and even within generations) Also, I feel like these rules are a lot less universal than you make them out to be here. Like I see where they come from, but it might be more central to your particular circle than you might think.
So agreeing on your second point. Tilda usage seems to be much more common amongst anime/manga communities, and I've yet to see consecutive commas by younger gens, as I only see old people use them on Facebook (and I assume they don't even know about it).
If you've been in fandom pages on the internet, you'd definitely encounter examples of the tilde a lot. I used to use tilde this way to end my messages on my role play accounts as a way to indicate which character I'm impersonating. ~ Kurariyon
ooof so I'm someone who would be considered older, and I have to say that this goes both ways. When someone sends me multiple messages back to back, like how you used the "How're you? How're things?" from your father is something you'd send as multiple messages, for someone like me, that comes across as obnoxious and needy. The messages are so short that one message would suffice. This might also be related to people such as myself being in my 40s being limited both on the number of characters that could be in a text message as well as being charged for every message sent, so it was to your advantage to send those two sentences together. A lot of people in their 40s like myself tend to just text like we talk but with what would be considered proper grammar, so periods, commas, etc. It's not rude, it was just considered the correct way of writing when texting was new.
I agree. Each time someone sends a message, it makes my phone/watch buzz. Sending four messages in rapid succession interrupts or distracts me four times. Taking a moment to compose a text with everything you intended to say is more polite IMHO, with one PS allowed because we all forget stuff. To me, it seems way easier to just use periods in the middle, though I use fewer at the end now than I did several years ago.
Using punctuation to denote tone of voice really only works if people know what you mean though. I see all the ,,, and I just assume your keyboard is messed up or something. I have no idea what it's supposed to signify. Related note I really like the layout of your kb and I noticed Sabrina uses the same one, what is it?
see, i'd never assume a keyboard is messed up after seeing ,,, because that doesn't make sense to me. messed up how? it's a tweet, chances are it was on a phone OR computer, how would a phone mess up like that? keyboard issues aren't my first thought coz there's a 50% chance i'm thinking about the wrong device. the thing is, within the circles we most closely associate with, we learn what those are, and we often learn each other's individual quirks too. that said, despite those smaller circles having more specialized in-jokes etc, most of the ones used commonly online are.... well... common online.. except for ,,,
I'm the only person from my friends who capitalises I and words that need capitalization. I'm also the only one to put commas into a comment. It's for my own satisfaction tbh.
I'm an older millennial and I wouldn't text like that. Seems to much of bother. Punctuation just works. At worst I don't capitalise things that auto correct doesn't catch and that's about it.
The only one of my very young friends who texts like an old person (and worse) has Asperger. It took me awhile to get used to his completely emotionless style. I've had more expressive conversations with AIs learning how to chat. Oh well, that's just how it is for some people...
and here i am, 30 yrs old and people online keep telling me to shut up coz i'm "just a highschooler who doesn't know anything" whenever i pipe up about language and writing. so... apparently i sound like a kid online O.o i feel bad for kids online coz adults are sometimes kinda mean just coz they think they're older and that make them smarter by default.. so maybe sounding older is a good thing :/ you avoid the insults.. (extra irony in my case; people tell me i know nothing about language and writing when i'm multilingual and have a degree in english lit and creative writing)
I think it's that for younger people they write as if they are talking But for older people it seems they try to either do it as if they're writing a letter Or they try to represent everything with 100s of emojis
i’m trying so hard not to unironically start crytyping (I’m assuming that’s the name for it but I’m probably very wrong- the ,,, and/or keyboard smashing thing) -(aka literally what you’re doing)- and it’s not working
Wow, this actually explains why my Dad gets so insecure about how to write when he's texting my uncles or when he is texting my sister and he very frequently asks me if the thing that he's gonna send is right. I have to admit that I often get annoyed by it but this video really made me understand him and I'll be more patient with him in the future. Thanks a lot!
I read somewhere that young people (i'm 39) apparently consider the ellipsis (…) to mean something completely different. To me, it's used primarily to either mean [trailing off] or just as a way to approximate a slight pause. To them, it seems like it means like sadness, confusion or frustration. This definitely made me hyper-aware of my overuse of ellipsis… =)
That’s interesting. I’ve never really thought about the youth‘s use of it (I’m 29 so I think we‘re likely the same generation and I agree, ellipsis is like when you lose your train of thought or are thinking/a pause in thought etc). I’ve seen it used in ways that make zero sense to me but I those times I just kinda put it down to kids on the internet being ignorant. Which is totally wrong, it’s just the evolution of language I guess! But it would be good to have some lil zoomies get in here and confirm what ellipsis means for them haha
@@elmondo-s1e gen z here. OP (original poster) is right in that to us, ellipsis *usually* conveys sadness, disappointment, pity or something similar in that sort of negative realm. (Example: "sometimes you do things that I can't accept anymore... you say things that hurt me and I can't just... keep being okay with it" or "jeez...") although even then, they're sort of rare. They've been - from what I've seen and my own experiences - replaced mostly by double/triple commas. Then again, we sometimes use elipses as the typed embodiment of 🤨 or 😐/😑. There are so many variations depending on what circles you're in and what forums/apps/communities you participate in that there isn't necessarily one set answer. At least in my circles, to convey the breaking up of thoughts you would generally use ,, (example: "you know,, I don't think I like apple juice that much?? It isn't really,, my kinda thing??") 2 question marks /+ 2 commas would be used instead of 1 to sort of,, soften?? The text and make it seem less confrontational/authoritative and more as if you're just thinking out loud and being friendly. Alternatively, using 'send' where you'd put elipses/a full stop is also an option. Most people tend to do this because it's less likely to be called odd 💀 (
@@alliegodfrey2726 Why the use of multiple commas though? Like what is the supposed difference between "you know,, I don't think I like apple juice that much" and "you know, I don't think I like apple juice that much". One comma is enough to indicate a pause in speech and thought. What does the second comma add?
@@ThePoorWyou know, that's a really good question, haha! You'd be completely right, but I guess the best way I could explain it is that two commas might be used to make it more informal? It makes grammatical sense with one comma, so of course it could be written like that, but in a strange way two commas might evoke a different tone to that created by one comma. That, or I've been operating within circles that use that sort of logic for so long that it makes sense when it isn't supposed to 🤦 Either way, I hope that answers your question!
It's _really_ uncomfortable for me to write without periods. To me, ending a sentence without one is not a "neutral" tone, it's a "I don't know what tone this is" tone which is _very different._ Even worse, people sometimes split up sentences over several messages, and I have _no idea when they end._ That can often lead to misunderstandings, or to me "butting in" in-between sentence fragments because I thought the sentence was over. Genuinely, how do people solve this last issue? 'cause I see it happen _all the time._
I'm 30 and spent a LOT of time on MSN, is my perspective. A period at the end in my circles was seen as like, potentially stern, or maybe mad... depends on the person and their writing style. Some always used periods, so they essentially didn't participate in that element of the language. When ya mad, it's just harder to not use a period, without even thinking about it, so it was often a good telltale sign. I never vibed with split up messages as far as sending like 5 separate messages. I always took the time to formulate my words how I wanted them, and always a proof-read, rather than blasting out messages. If I want my sentences spaced out, I'll use paragraph spaces.
i just don’t care if people butt in half way through lmao. go for it. add to my thoughts. ill finishing saying what i have to say and then add on information if it’s relevant to what you said. also keep in mind people will see that you replied before they’ve finished so if they then misunderstand your reply, that’s kinda just on them, like, clearly you didn’t have all the information back then. if your thoughts change you’d obviously let them know.
YES THIS IS IT! I've been searching for a way to explain what a "typographic footprint" is to my friends, but I ALWAYS get choked up on my words. This video is the ONE
Dang. I always thought the two comma thing was just someone trying to be super annoying. Now I know that they are trying to sound nicer whilst sounding super annoying.
One advantage of formal writting is that it conforms to certain standards. Most comments on RU-vid are what you'd call formal and thank God because otherwise it would be a total mess.
I think it's a combination of many phones having this weird autocorrect thing a few years back where it wouldn't let you put ellipsis willy nilly, but made no effort to correct a series of commas, it being more normalized through this, and people percieving it as almost a softer version of ellipsis that actually serves as a legitimate variant through communicating something slightly different than an ellipsis would. It's pretty interesting! Personally, I prefer to keep it weirdly formal in my youtube comment replies, but it makes sense that twitter would give birth to quick ways to add nuance or tone with the incentive to keep it as concise as possible to try and fit what you want to say within the character limit.
Commenting to boost this in the algorithm. The bit about everyone having a typographical fingerprint reminded me of this bit from Blink by Malcolm Gladwell- apparently during WW2, the Allies were able to track the movement of Axis forces by the way individual soldiers used the telegraph. So idk that’s cool I guess
The thing is, I've been communicating via IM and such since at least high school in the '90s, I'm rapidly approaching middle age, and despite having been aware that various parts of this are true since I was an adolescent, I still refuse to write in anything less than formally complete thoughts and sentences. That has nothing to do with my generation; there's a lot of personality and personal choices wrapped up in *not* writing like that, too.
I am in Gen Z and write pretty much the same, though sometimes with a few modifications like occasionally using emoticons/kaomoji; and almost always putting the comma on the outside of quotations instead of inside of them in order to have everything inside the quotation marks be quoted verbatim.
I might be an early gen Z but I still suck at expressing emotion through text, especially when it comes to sarcasm. Likely because using a lot of the common ways to express emotion require too much extra effort, like capitalising every second letter for sarcasm/mocking tone, using more than 5 types of emojis (unless I'm trying to sound sweet to my family or smth), etc., so I have replaced a lot of the normal expression methods with things that are expressive to me but not other people, like punctuation marks and filler phrases. Great to express the way I tend to express my emotions irl but not very helpful in actually communicating feelings to others
I personally use a tilda at the end to signify a sing-song tone~! Or something a tad more teasing and flirty~? Or just a taunt~ It's a good way to add a specific tone to the end of things to help me add flavor to my messages and writing~! ^u^
I'm thinking that the fake one is the "youtube is down,, i am free". My reasoning is that because that's the one we've seen before, it's as a means of subliminally making it seem more "real". I also considered the last one that was about hungry, since it definitely goes heavy on the punctuations. Which I assume someone trying to be Taha would do but I'm unsure about it. Kinda like how psychologists talk about priming
I was actually playing Among Us a week ago, and I happen to be one of those 'weird' gen z people who actually uses periods at the end of all their sentences. People I was playing with actually said my proper punctuation made them uncomfortable. Guess I'm the weird one? I always had a hard time picking up on socal context.
i can understand that happening.. especially in Among Us were people are tryna read any clues to decipher your intentions and actual actions.. so if you're using fullstops at the end of every sentence, not just for clarity in reading, it starts to feel like.... you're hiding something, altering it, making blunt statements.... in a game where accusations turn into votes and can win or lose the game, it's understandable why that would feel strange for people.. usually when i play among us, i just type things like where who sus etc without even adding a question mark . it .. feels sus to add a question mark when the context is already obvious.. probably coz it's an extra keystroke, so it's like, why'd this person hit an extra keystroke, we already know what they're asking.. but different people will still have their own tone. if you play with the same lobby a lot, they'll start to get used to it and hopefully it won't feel as weird to them ^u^
Me: Hi Mom! Just wanted to say you're good to come over at 3:00 today! Looking forward to seeing you! Love you :) My Mom who is the warmest person on earth and loves me dearly: ok
I was a writing tutor in college, so I simply can't produce any written correspondence that's not properly punctuated. Unless it's a one-word response, and even then sometimes I capitalize it and use a period out of habit. I get twitchy otherwise, but only for my own writing (I don't judge others for how they text). Although in a text or informal email I will consider an emoji at the end of a sentence to be functionally equivalent to a period.
I tend to avoid sending two thoughts as two texts for technological reasons. When sent as one message they can see the entire message in their notification or on their watch. With more than one they can't. Also, when I started texting, one had to pay for individual messages. There was a financial incentive to communicate with a minimally sufficient number of messages.
Exactly. When texting first developed, you got your entire thought down in one message for a reason. It also prevented annoying cross communication, where the other person replies while you're still typing the second message. At least now the new phones show that the other person is still typing, but even just a couple of years ago, too many times things would derail because people just couldn't wait for the entire thought to come in multiple texts.
The way text speak has become its own language is so freaking cool. Being able to show sarcasm through a written word instead of tone of voice is sOoOOo CoOL. iTs jUsT tHe bEsT. Get my point?
The guidelines looked easy, but now I'm waiting for Sabrina to implement it in a Taha AI Twitter bot ahah And why not set up a bot that would scrap tweets from someone's feed and basically create the guidelines itself, like... a deep tweet fake ?
I have been a technophile all my life, but I also have hypergraphia and love writing extremely long winded messages, articles, blogs, posts, and random comments. Something about the latter makes me extremely formal in my writing, but I still suck with punctuation in general. I eventually got to the point where I couldn't stand texting, and learned to connect my phone to my computer so I could type messages with a keyboard on all my phone apps...
I also tend to write long, essay-style messages, phone or computer (and because of this on my phone I've gotten quite good at typing relatively quickly using Hacker's Keyboard over the years). I've started contacting people mostly on Telegram over text when possible as well, as that can be accessed on my computer as well making it much faster to type with my normal style of longer messages.
I expected an explanation that explained why my mom uses emojiis and has a weird and strange way of writing through messages. Instead I got an explanation of how you text very similarly to my mom. Myself, and basically all of my friends (age range 25-35) all text, write, and message in standard normal proper written English. On occasions, we'll throw in things to emphasize words or points, but pretty seldom. Most of us also work professional types of jobs (half of us are engineers) and really don't use or care for/about social media at all. So perhaps that is the difference. My mom does not work, and really never has. She also does Facebook, though I don't know or care to what extent. Myself and my friends just prefer to communicate more clearly by using descriptive language that doesn't butcher the English language in order to make sure what we say is understood. "I'm fine" conveys very little, even if you add all sorts of random punctuation that's moderately indecipherable as there's absolutely no established standard to what two commas at the end of it means, so it's arbitrary to try to guess what "i'm Fine" is supposed to mean. Instead, myself and my friends would just use a more descriptive response that actually conveys a complete thought without need to try to guess what the interpretation of it means. "I'm fine, it's been a pretty chill day, work hasn't been too busy, so I spent longer than I should have commenting on a youtube video than I'm sure my employer would ever approve of." Sure, that's a long response, but it actually provides proper communication and an actual response, instead of "I''m fine~!" which who the hell knows what that's supposed to actually mean
please double-check when and how to use the word "myself" ironic since you mention more than once that you (& your friends) don't butcher "the English language"
In my opinion my style of informal writing depends if the person I'm talking understand its or not. Good video I wanted to see a video talk about this topic.
2 things to say: 1 - i absolutely LOVE the editing in this video, wow and 2 - something i LOVE about people's "typographic footprints" is that you (or at least i) tend to pick up parts of other people's. for example, i always used to capitalise 'i's and the first letter of sentences in texts and online, but i noticed my sister didn't, and i thought "huh, i like how informal that looks", so i stopped doing it, and it stuck. sometimes it happens subconsciously too, like i saw a couple of people online use "~" for "whimsy" as you call it, and now i do that too, but i hadn't even noticed until this video. and my absolute favourite thing about "typing quirks" (that's what i would call them, same as a typographical footprint really) is when someone takes on part of yours - like a certain thing you always include in texts - and they start doing it too, consciously or unconsciously. it always makes me smile
Tilde also gets used to mean a flirtatious or seductive tone. I personally feel like I use a decent amount of grammar in texts if it's more than 3 sentences
I'm an X-ennial and I feel like I grew up along side the internet. BBSs in my tweens, chatrooms as a teen, neopets, gaia, myspace, etc evolved into modern social medias. I remember having a more casual tone in my studies that my teachers would correct. It seems to me that I was among the first to learn both formal and conversational textual communication methods concurrently. Millennials forward have that whole online world all in place as soon as their guardians feel they're ready to plug in. I do seem more formal than the generations after mine. Look at me, trying to be grammatically correct even now. My old is showing ^_^
I actually baffled an old coworker of mine when he realized that I could tell when his wife would text me back for him! He was totally creeped out by it because apparently no one's ever been able tell, but I thought it was obvious because to me they don't sound anything alike when they text 😂 I'm also one of those people that mimics your texting style to a T if you ask me to send a message. Lololol
my mum always was aware of language changing (since she went back to her home country after like 30yrs away and people used the language there differently and she was just like "...i'm a relic trapped in time :O " ) so when she noticed my bro and i would text back to her without fullstops etc, she did the mature, educated thing and just... asked us why. We were also surprised, and tried to explain it, realized ourselves we were portraying tone etc etc... Mum just listened and nodded, said it was interesting... And ever since then her way of texting us is informal, friendly, light. She sends them in different messages. Hi Coffee ?? yu late hahaha where are youuuuuuu etc. And then my dad's just like: Hello. Will you be home today in the afternoon? I left a music stand behind. Thank you. Dad. .... >.> welp.
My issue with my parents' texts isn't the period at the end. That is totally understandable. The problem is that they write completely incorrectly. Like: > how, are, you. commas shouldn't be that difficult > how are you.. why would you use an ellipsis here? it's not even an ellipsis... > HOW ARE YOU? why are they so obsessed with all caps? I know they can use Caps Lock becuase their other texts are normal > how are you 🤯🤑🥵🍆💦💦 why would they use emojis if they have no idea what they mean? It's not about formal vs informal writing. What they do is just totally bonkers. Just throwing away all rules isn't highly sophisticated use of language. You need to have a purpose with how you write stuff. That's why capitalizing a SINGLE word works. It's a normal sentence, but the contrast makes people understand that that specific word has a larger emphasis. This whole explanation cannot be said about all the misused commas, periods etc.
I think one of the middle tweets is the imposter. The second Tweet doesn’t seem like it fits you, and the third seems like it’s trying to hard to look like you.
I'm in the "weird texting" generation. Things like caps, strikethrough, tildes, and ellipses are things I appreciate. However, things like putting meaning into the presence or absence of capitals and periods or having commas in weird places -- that feels downright insulting to me. It's not augmenting our communication. It's perverting it -- the tonal version of "putting words in my mouth" and refusing to be straight with me. I'm not even going to notice those things, so if someone expects me to read meaning into it, I feel cheated -- talked at instead of talked to. Add; don't twist.
punctuation's purpose originally was to inform the reader how the writing was to be SPOKEN. so in a way, we... kinda returned punctuation to its original intended purpose, and just expanded upon it :P and then... created a visual-verbal mashup in the process.. But for us, it helps aid much smoother conversation, because there's no need to wonder if something's sarcastic if it's literally written in sArCaSm, for example. BUT the key thing is, some people still think that the writing functions as written communication. the situation is actually ... not that simple. It's mimicking speech. And in speech, people will mutter parts of their thoughts, emphasise others, and use, their body language, tone of voice, and even where their eyes are looking will fill in information when they say "i'm fine" letting you know exactly what sort of "i'm fine" was actually spoken. Same words, different meanings, is part of normal spoken communication. The precense/absence of capitals/periods etc help to fill in all the body language, facial cues and verbal tone you'd normally automatically read along with a person's spoken words. Some stuff moves on from mimicking actual sounds (like "how are youuuuu") and creates just a visual creation that cannot be said, but still holds meaning and kinda has a visual "sound" in the mind when read (such as keyboard smash. a simple "asfdghfdhjkhjgfh" can be far more succint and to be point than actually tryna explain it with words, saving time and keystrokes and not slowing the conversation down).. It may take some practice to get used to, but if anything, people are refining language, to allow for a visual-verbal form of written speech. that's pretty cool. so don't feel it's insulting, they're not tryna do that at all. if you struggle with being able to read it though, that's a different matter, and people are aware of that, too, thus creating list of tonal tags, and encouraging folks to add those to help people who mightn't be able to read tone visually (the tags are stuff like /s for sarcasm, /j for joke, /gen for a genuine question etc)
It's also weird when you text someone and you have different texting styles. In a situation where you write in uppercase letters because of how you emotionally respond to something (WAIT I FORGOT ABT THAT ) and the other texter has a 'chiller' way of talking about things. Or using lots of emojis to express different things (😩😏💀🙃😶🌫️👀🤨) while the other person expresses themselves in text (ahhhh/AHHHH,hmmm~,LMAO/BRUH, wha-/WHA-) One appears colder than the other one (although it might not be intended),but a conversation also looks...weirder than it might be when those 2 styles are combined. It's also that you start to pick up phrases/emojis combinations/etc. in order to make them be in your texting style too. Like when you get a texting style from a friend and use it when talking to another friend. And you can also switch/adapt your texting style in different situations/settings and it can differ A LOT from one person to another,one social media app to another,even from one language to another
This is one of the highest-quality content-makers I am watching and I can rightfully state that this channel, despite its subscriber amount, is criminally underwatched.
It's kinda weird analyzing how I write...like in RU-vid comments, I normally write in full and (hopefully) grammatically correct sentences. Texting/messaging family is mostly the same, full sentences and usually correct punctuation (again, hopefully). Even on Twitch chat and Discord it's usually that way, I convey mood and meaning with emotes/emojis. For context, I'm 32 years old, so the first third of my life was spent without much internet. Most others close to my age are similar, as far as I can tell...the small differences being how quickly their families adopted at home internet.
Is it me, or is there a dismissive undertone in this video toward the use of proper grammar, punctuation and sentence structure in informal text? A language's evolution and malleability is something to be celebrated, and that door swings both ways. If the thesis here is that it's important for the older generation to understand how younger people communicate, and to respect that difference, I'd offer that younger people would do well equally in understanding that how their parents' generation writes is just as nuanced, layered and *valid* as their own. Every generation before yours has its unique social conventions in written communication. Every. Single. One. You're adding your voice to the chorus, nothing more. It's a unique voice, certainly, as were those which came before you, but it will not replace them. Informal writing is nothing new.
But you know that your mom's style of texting isn't angrily punctuating sentences, because that is entirely a generational thing, so why would her doing that be a problem?
When I text, I'm usually semi-formal I don't do full stops (unless it's a very long message), I prefer just pressing enter or sending another message However I (usually) use capital letters, somewhat proper grammar, commas, question marks, shortcuts (like ur instead of you're) and exclamation marks Sometimes I opt for a very informal text, in which case I might dO tHiS or use improper grammar on purpose, but it's not often and mostly for a joke ^ that's how it usually works, unless I'm trying to argue/prove a point. In that case, I switch to being very formal and use full stops, no shortcuts like ur instead of you're, and in general even more proper than usual.
I already feel that when texting people who're 4 years older than me. I don't know why... But they suck at texting. They have no texting etiquette. I'm 19 and at the moment I'm surrounded by 23-25 yr olds. They're amazing, I love them in real life... Over text I swear they hate me or something. I don't even know whether these etiquette are something I completely made up, or whether that's something from my generation/the place I come from. I do know that I do not have the same issue with my friend who's 20. An example is always saying thanks when someone does something for you... Even when you asked them to do it. Or giving some sign of life that you've read a message. At least give the message a fucking reaction or something. Or even... I can't believe I'm saying this.... RESPONDING. It's insane how many times I've litterally just texted those people a question... They were the best people to answer the question... They read it and just... Don't reply? I have had mental breakdowns because I thought certain people hated me, or were annoyed with me. And then the next time I see them they're absolutely amazing and obviously do like me. And these are just the things I can actually explain. One time I asked someone for help. He was giving me an explanation, but it seemed so short and strange that I assumed I was being a bother. Until he sent a video showing what he wanted to explain and he didn't sound annoyed whatsoever. He was just being his normal self. Yet over text I swear he was annoyed. One time I asked someone something... He didn't respond. After 2 weeks of trying any other way to find it out, I came to the conclusion that I had to text him again. I texted him on another platform, didn't respond, another one and finally he answered. I don't know wtf it is. I genuinely don't. I get that people are busy, I get that I'm not a priority, but ffs... How does that happen so much... And they don't even apologise for it? Anyway, that's my rant of me being socially awkward and realising that texting etiquette absolutely do not exist, that it's basically the wild west and there's no way of telling how someone is actually sending a text :).
