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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? (jorts.horse)

submitted 5 months ago by fathermcgruder@jorts.horse to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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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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[–] sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago (2 children)

That kinda makes sense because that is the how it is intended to be used (from a punctuation perspective).

el·lip·sis noun the omission from speech or writing of a word or words that are superfluous or able to be understood from contextual clues.

[–] RGB3x3@lemmy.world 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Hmm, I'd always understood ellipses to mean a thought was trailing off, or as a written indicator of someone thinking as if taking a pause while speaking.

I was never taught that's what it means, just seems that's how most people use it.

[–] sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

I think schools stopped teaching it at some point. Legal docs are one of the places that use it as originally intended. And, I guess, older folks.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Wikipedia ….

Depending on context, ellipsis can indicate an unfinished thought, a leading statement, a slight pause, an echoing voice, or a nervous or awkward silence.

I usually use it as “a slight pause” in my attempts at jokes, or to abbreviate a quote