I just sent a moderately long text and, while doing so, it occurred to me that I was being very precise with my spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. I’d never given it much thought before, but on reflection I realize that I never abbreviate and always use proper punctuation (semicolons, even, and always a period when appropriate).
I think it is an automatic act of rebellion against the “text-speak” that is so widespread among Generation Whippersnapper.
Does anyone else share this mentality and/or practice?
mmm
(and a Hostess Twinkie goes to the inevitable first response written in text-speak. Go ahead. U no U want 2.)
The one thing I dislike about my Moto is that it doesn’t have the ¡ and ¿ signs.
I’m such a stickler for proper spelling and punctuation that I once sent my brother a message where I’d abbreviated “que” to “q” (very common in Spanish text, and be grateful that the shortener isn’t using “k” - which isn’t any shorter than “q”); he didn’t understand it, because he couldn’t wrap his mind around “my sister used a purposeful misspelling”.
I do understand what you mean - I text my son failry often, and his text speak just makes my eyeballs hurt. I don’t always stick to the rules of punctuation and such (mostly out of ignorance because I can’t always remember them) but I do NOT text speak. I got into this habit back in the day when we had pagers that you can type on and I did a LOT of text pages with my bosses at work. I still do a fair bit of texting with my bosses at work on my phone and I would NEVER EVER want to get into that habit when texting with them. So I just don’t do it with anyone. Besides it takes twice as long to read text speak for this old fogey.
It really doesn’t take much extra time to send a grammatically correct text. I mean it’s not like writing a novel.
So, yes, I pretty much always use correct spelling and punctuation, although I might answer with “OK” or just “K” if I get a message asking me to pick up milk or something.
I, too, am a stickler - it’s really not that hard to type up messages properly. I’m trying to lead my children and their friends by example, but I’m not sure it’s working…
I don’t, nor do I really care through any other medium. I have a theory that people who get uppity about spelling/punctuation are just like grammar nazis in that the only reason they correct others on that stuff is because they have no other way in their pathetic lives to feel superior. Then again, I’m an asshole so think what you will.
Yeah, basically every phone on the market now comes with some sort of predictive text function or other text assist function like autocorrect. If you’re not using shortcuts and textspeak, congratulations, you’re part of the teenage sheeple.
I don’t care. Of course I’ve only sent one short text in my life so my English teacher would have okayed it.
However, if I DID text, I would probably fall somewhere in the middle. Glaring errors that I NOTICE might get fixed (or not). Things worded poorly might get rearranged. Spelling I know is wrong might get fixed, though if it is one of those “damnit, I can’t remember if the a goes before or after the u in this word” I’ll probably just say fuck it.
That how I roll with most of my posts here. I am here to have fun, not write term papers or TPS reports.
Also, I have no real desire to do the whole text/leetspeak? thing. Except may on occasion for a laugh.
The phone I had before my current one had a great auto correct. I could type ‘i’ and it would make it ‘I’, I could type ‘im’ and it would change it to ‘I’m’. Almost all of the contractions it would do as well.
My current phone has auto correct, but it sucks, it predicts really strange words and will change every word even if I didn’t select a word. I had to turn the damn thing off.
I spell out my words, I’m not a great speller, but I don’t always put in the ’ as it takes longer to put in. I don’t always capitalize either. I figure my point gets across.
Thank goodness none of my friends use text-speak unironically. I have one that who drives me nuts because he writes badly, but at least the words make sense even if his capitalization and punctuation is iffy.
Sometimes I get crazy because I have a hard time editing on my phone, so if I make a mistake on Facebook or whatever I can’t fix it.
I don’t feel uppity about it at all. The only part of my OP that may appear as such is my Gen W crack, which was, in fact, merely an attempt at humor.
And I’m not seeing anything I’ve written that indicates I correct others.
Also, I have plenty of other ways to feel superior. (kidding)
The main point of my OP is more about me than about others. I feel the need to use proper language, to the best of my ability, when texting. I would feel stupid doing otherwise.
mmm
I do my best to spell and punctuate correctly in texts. If I look at one before sending and see a spelling error that won’t confuse the recipient, I’ll let that fly.
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