I always thought it was interesting how auto capitalization and other correction can often reveal whether someone is using their phone or laptop/pc.<p>Flaws and other nuances in how we text is very personal and can be used as a way to detect if you are still you, or if at least you are you but you're a bit off. (ie drunk, sick, in a bad situation)
See also Because Internet, by Gretchen McCulloch, which explores the phenomenon if internet-speak more thoroughly.<p><a href="https://gretchenmcculloch.com/book/" rel="nofollow">https://gretchenmcculloch.com/book/</a>
Feels like all of this post could have been replaced with these 3-4 actual text-message screenshots [1].<p>Also interesting how the millennials and late X-ers (I'm one of the latter) tend to put less and less emphasis on trying to copy younger people (like zoomers) in order "to remain cool" (for lack of a better expression), which wasn't always the case (the "fellow kids" [2] meme being the best example).<p>[1] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/gallery/12rdwdy" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/gallery/12rdwdy</a><p>[2] <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-do-you-do-fellow-kids" rel="nofollow">https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-do-you-do-fellow-kids</a>
I was thinking just yesterday how funny it is that I'd have been called a nerd and gotten my ass kicked if I said internet slang out-loud 25 years ago and nowadays even my masseuse is throwing out terms like fomo and slay. English is really cool.
Is the risk of being called a Boomer, or any other pejorative by faceless teenagers, or anyone else, a concern to 1) anyone over 20 or 2) anyone who has been on the Internet longer than a month?<p>I text like I type/write, and even did with a dumb phone with a number pad and did so on USENET and BBSes. Why? Because text is a notoriously more difficult medium than talking in person through which to convey meaning.<p>Communication is hard! Face-to-face is hard even with people you know and who know you well. Text is much harder, so removing as much ambiguity as possible is desired.<p>Why should the reader be left to figure out if he's reading Tumblr dialect or Reddit dialect. If you want to be understood, if you actually want your message to "translate" as closely as possible to your meaning, the onus is on you.
> For now, there is no choice but to adapt to the ever-changing unwritten rules of text-speak—unless you want to risk being called a “boomer” online by a bunch of faceless teenagers.<p><i>Oh, the horror.</i>