'Punctuation Is Dead Because the iPhone Keyboard Killed It' (androidauthority.com)
- Reference: 0175452225
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/11/11/225255/punctuation-is-dead-because-the-iphone-keyboard-killed-it
- Source link: https://www.androidauthority.com/apple-iphone-killed-punctuation-3497899/
> Pundits will say that it's just an extra tap to add a period (double-tap the space bar) or a comma (switch to the characters layout and tap comma), but it's one extra tap too many. When you're firing off replies and messages at a rapid rate, the jarring pause while the keyboard switches to symbols and then switches back to letters is just too annoying, especially if you're doing it multiple times in one message. I hate pausing mid-sentence so much that I will sacrifice a comma at the altar of speed. [...]
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> The real problem, at the end of the day, is that iPhones -- not Android phones -- are popular among Gen Z buyers, especially in the US -- a market with a huge online presence and influence. Add that most smartphone users tend to stick to default apps on their phones, so most of them end up with the default iPhone keyboard instead of looking at better (albeit often even slower) alternatives. And it's that same keyboard that's encouraging them to be lazy instead of making it easier to add punctuation.
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> So yes, I blame the iPhone for killing the period and slaughtering the comma, and I think both of those are great offenders in the death of the capital letter. But trends are cyclical, and if the cassette player can make a comeback, so can the comma. Who knows, maybe in a year or two, writing like a five-year-old will be passe, too, and it'll be trendy to use proper grammar again.
[1] https://www.androidauthority.com/apple-iphone-killed-punctuation-3497899/
The actual culprit (Score:4, Insightful)
We failed to inculcate a respect for the value of the written word. You reap what you sow.
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> We failed to inculcate a respect for the value of the written word. You reap what you sow.
You think people actually taking the time to write messages isn't having enough respect? Wait until you chat with someone who always only send voice messages over WhatsApp, that will show you what disrespect is.
Automatic transcription of voice messages is one thing sorely lacking in WA. At least I can play the voice at 2x speed, that made it barely tolerable. Before that feature, I generally ignore all voice messages. A 30 second voice message could be read in 2-5 seconds if texted, if it isn't worth yo
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> We failed to inculcate a respect for the value of the written word. You reap what you sow.
Yes, life was so much better back when more people couldn't read or write.
Computers have aided literacy immeasurably by putting the implements to do so in the hands of many. Not just in the developed world, but the developing world as well.
As for the value of the written word... you know there is no central authority for the English Language... There's a good reason for this, language is not defined by haughty pedants in ivory towers upset that everyone is not speaking the exact way they were taught 2
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The ultimate arbiter of language is common usage. What that is depends on how things become common. Usually it's from how we're taught, how written and broadcast sources use the language (such as books and media), and finally how we communicate with each other.
But there are still right and wrong things in language. If you go wild, creating your own neologisms, aberrant spellings, or misused phrases just because you think they're right, you're not some grand innovator. You're just a stubborn idiot. You don't
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The ultimate arbiter of language is common usage. What that is depends on how things become common. Usually it's from how we're taught, how written and broadcast sources use the language (such as books and media), and finally how we communicate with each other.
But there are still right and wrong things in language. If you go wild, creating your own neologisms, aberrant spellings, or misused phrases just because you think they're right, you're not some grand innovator. You're just a stubborn idiot. You don't
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Sorry for the double-post. Slashdot was doing strange things and I didn't see the other copy before posting this one.
Yeah but then you have to teach the humanities (Score:2)
As soon as you start talking about doing that every single schlep comes out of the woodwork to talk about how it's not worth it because you can't get a job with the humanities. Then they tell you to go be an HVAC welder or something.
e e cummings (Score:1)
was ahead of his time
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> was ahead of his time
You're correct, and you beat me to it. With that being said, he did write in several styles during his carreer.
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e e cummings (or as he and his wife preferred, E. E. Cummings) did not completely eschew lower-case. The idea that he did [1]is actually a myth. [flocabulary.com]
Cummings used case and punctuation to convey an artistic message. iPhone users are just sloppy.
[1] https://blog.flocabulary.com/myth-e-e-cummings-only-wrote-in-lowercase-letters/
Bad software design screws things (Score:2)
and has done for a long time. One of the worst (IMHO and I know that many will disagree with me) was many years ago when a Microsoft mail program put the cursor on the first line of a reply rather than the bottom - as had been done until then. The result of this is that [1]Top Posting [idallen.com] became popular rather than Bottom or Interleaved posting.
The result is:
* poor flow - where you have replies before questions
* that many only read the first few lines in email, so points in a long/complex email are ignored
* that
[1] https://idallen.com/topposting.html
Maybe change the rules a little (Score:4, Informative)
On the iPhone keyboard, a quick double tap produces a period. A slightly slower double tap just makes two spaces. That's my personal shorthand for a comma. The list of people I text extensively with is a fairly short one, and they all know my hack for this problem. Others quickly figure it out. Just like a comma the extra space lets the reader know where a pause belongs. Mostly it doesn't make a big difference and may not even be noticed. If the sentence is complicated or hastily written though it lets the reader go back and sort things out easily.
I wouldn't go around recommending it as a solution but it works for me.
One can only hope. (Score:2)
Who knows, maybe in a year or two, writing like a five-year-old will be passe, too, and it'll be trendy to use proper grammar again.
Please, too, stop using "literally" for emphasis, that's not what it means. And "begs the question" doesn't make you sound literate if you're not talking about the logical fallacy.
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The logical fallacy meaning of "begs the question" is essentially obsolete. English isn't Latin, it's not a dead language, and "begs the question" is now synonymous with "raises the question".
The use of "literally" to mean "figuratively" still bugs me, but I suspect we're going to have to live with it, it's part of the language now.
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It's still wrong to say "begs the question" when you mean "raises the question". Begging the question is a circular logical fallacy, where you smuggle your conclusion into a premise.
When someone says "begs the question" when they mean "raises the question" I can tell what they really mean. But I can also tell they're an idiot.
Dumbing down of users (Score:4, Insightful)
There was a time when if you need help using a computer the common advise was to ask a young person. However I think things have gone full circle. Using an iPhone or Android phone doesn't teach you much about computers, just UXes and how to use apps. Worse still if iPhones are more popular they are less likely to even learn how to create apps as Apple is basically anti casual app creation.
I may be wrong but it seems like we have younger generations coming thru who think a phone and/or tablet is enough for any computing task and basically have a minimal understanding of PCs and wider computing.
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The "ask a young person" advice was never valid.
In any age group, there are people who find computing interesting and learn about it. From a 90 year old retired CS professor to a 12 year old kid, that interest exists. But it's never been a majority of people, no matter how old they are. A young person today probably knows how to use the ticktocks, but doesn't understand the concepts behind the screen. A person who is my age probably played Oregon Trail and didn't hit return when the cursor got to the en
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Did you miss the part "the common advise"? I never said it was my advise, or that I agreed with it, just that it was the public perception. To be honest it annoyed me then and it annoys me now because it was a simplification and for the reasons you mention.
To be clear, if you were born before the early 1960s you would have had to actively learn about computers. Those born from the 1960s onward, until recently, grew up around computers so were likely to learn about them from just being around them at a
It's just one motion, but it's hard to discover (Score:1)
Hit symbols/numbers key and hold it down, slide your finger to the comma, let go. Done.
But also, just press the button and hit the comma and then space and it switches back automatically to the normal keyboard. This has never been anything that I've ever spent any time thinking about. It's so easy that it's just something that I've done because I want my sentences to look correct.
The issue is that nobody cares, and to a certain extent, why should they? If you say something out loud, there are no commas to i
Iphones (Score:1)
Iphones.... Further stupifying the human race.
You guys. There's a common thread here... (Score:2)
Have you considered that your experience might not be universal...?
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Wait what? There's a world outside of iPhone?
"Forgetfulness" (Score:2)
Ron Thule's voice was a whisper from the darkness. "I come from a far world... I am a savage, a rising race that has not learned the secret of fire, nor bow, nor hammer. Tell me Shor Nun, what is the nature of the two dry sticks I must rub, that fire may be born?...Tell me how I may make fire."
"Why---with matches or a heat ra--- No, Ron Thule. Vague thoughts, meaningless ideas and unclear. I---I have forgotten the ten thousand generations of development. I cannot retreat to a level you, savage of an untrain
your really think so (Score:5, Insightful)
listen guys you dont have to let tech take over your life and it doesnt have to dictate how you do everything i guarantee you that if you dont know how to write properly you wont make it in many professions or for that matter make it out of school to get a degree to work in those professions lawyer teacher scientist or anything you might need an mba for but what do i know i think autocorrect is a bigger menace than any stupid punctuation rules that have evolved over centuries i read that many japanese students and young adults have lost the ability to writ kanji characters because they are now used to just punching in phonetics on their phones there is no hope for where this is going and who cares pretty soon elon musk is going to make another trillion selling us brain implants so nobody has to read or write or for that matter understand anything anymore im done goodbye
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I actually ran out of breath trying to read that...
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I did not even bother to read it. Just because someone posts a wall of text does not mean one has to read it.
Write whatever nonsense article you want, claiming whatever fad is in style: ads, diets, yoga, or grammar shortcuts; it does not mean that people as a whole are going to accept them.
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Huh. I didn't realize this is why iFans don't punctuate anything. Well at least they have smart quotes, I guess?
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Apple users don't always use punctuation, but when they do, they prefer to break non-Unicode-aware websites.
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At least that post isn't filled with SmartQuote characters instead of alphabetic ones.
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4/10 .. not enough grammatical errors and incorrect word substitutions, could have made it funnier