this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
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What is it about the text messages and emails sent by older people that make me feel like I'm having a stroke?

Maybe they're used to various shortcuts in their writing that they picked up before autocorrect became common, but these habits are too idiosyncratic for autocorrect to handle properly. However, that doesn't explain the emails I've had to decipher that were typed on desktop keyboards. Has anyone else younger than 45 or so felt similarly frustrated with geriatrics' messages?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 69 points 1 month ago (35 children)

Gonna need some examples methinks. But the tendency to overuse ellipses is right tf up there

[โ€“] [email protected] 44 points 1 month ago (18 children)

Yes! This is what I always associate with older folks texting or emailing. I use ellipses a fair bit for (my attempts at) comedic effect. Some older folks are using them on a whole different level, having this weird habit of ending sentences with them where most people would use a period or exclamation point. It can come off sounding very ominous.

"Bill is coming over."

Okay, cool. Have fun with Bill.

"Bill is coming over ..."

Grandpa, are you in trouble? What's Bill going to do???

[โ€“] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (9 children)

I saw some video where they explained boomers use the ellipses to indicate missing words? like they're acknowledging that it's a sentence fragment and not a complete sentence.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's a little different: if you're quoting someone and cut words out of the middle of the quote, you'd use ... to indicate that you've modified the quote. It wouldn't go at the end of a sentence though. It used to be pretty common in newspapers, as I recall.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

so why are they using it at the end of a sentence if it's not to indicate trailing off?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Indicating trailing off is another way to use it; that's more literary vs the newspaper thing of indicating removed words. I wouldn't expect anyone to use it to indicate removed words at the the of a sentence, because you could just end the sentence instead. But some people are weird.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I know that they're weird, but they're all doing it. there must be a reason. they must have been taught something in school

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