A Defense of Text-Speak | Hacker News Reader

A Defense of Text-Speak

nateranda.com

I always thought it was interesting how auto capitalization and other correction can often reveal whether someone is using their phone or laptop/pc.

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)

Does anyone else get irrationally annoyed at their keyboards changing what they type to Brand Correct Language?

As in, I type youtube but it gets autocorrected to YouTube. I don't want to give that much respect to the brand!

Less irrational was when helping my parents shop for new windows while they were doing a remodel. Yes, keyboard, I mean physical windows for the house not Windows the OS, please stop.

Ha yes. If I were to write down my habits into a style guide "never use the preferred capitalization of any brand" would definitely make it in there.

To an extent, Outlook has lately taken upon itself to correct me in unintended ways to the point I had adjust a fair amount of settings. I still agree you can are more likely to spot a phone vs laptop, but the lines are slowly blurring.

See also Because Internet, by Gretchen McCulloch, which explores the phenomenon if internet-speak more thoroughly.

https://gretchenmcculloch.com/book/

Her podcast Lingthusiasm [1] (with Lauren Gawne [2]) is well worth listening to as well.

1. https://lingthusiasm.com/ 2. https://laurengawne.com/

Feels like all of this post could have been replaced with these 3-4 actual text-message screenshots [1].

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).

[1] https://www.reddit.com/gallery/12rdwdy

[2] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/how-do-you-do-fellow-kids

> 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

As a late X-er: I can relate. I kind of love my forties, overall, mostly because I've come to like me. I just am, and a lot of days, that is enough for me. Who needs cool when you can like yourself sufficiently, and have enough respect from those around you?

Let the insecure be consumed by their status games, and the young obsessed with signaling their relevance. I'll be doing my own thing.

I think a lot of millenials have copied younger people's identity politics due to pressure and not wanting to be in the outgroup

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 "slay" internet slang? I thought it was American gay slang.

Pretty sure it was drag before it was gay - and would hazard a guess it was black before that? Just the way things tend to go.

It's probably stolen but I see it a lot from influencers and all over tiktok.

I curse both sans serif fonts and the modern day proclivity for omitting proper capitalisation every time someone starts an email to me with “Hi Lain”

My name in English begins with the letters I and L, and I think it is a fun game.

I've had to copy text out of Chrome and into an editor to decipher an I versus an l before (mostly for imgur links or the like), its awfully annoying

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?

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.

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.

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.

The OP is based tho

frfr

Ahem

I really do think that the author of the article has a good point.

> 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.

Oh, the horror.

Them: "Ok, Boomer!" Me: "No problem, Embryo!"

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