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Gen Z Netiquettes

manyonepercents.substack.com

221–230 of 269 posts

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#221
post #32

> 9. Capitalizing the first letter in a sentence will reveal where you are This one really surprises me, if someone contacted me without bothering to type a proper sentence I would just think they're an idiot. Everyone I know always starts a sentence with a capital letter, no matter the platform. They all know how to use the shift key. This isn't even gate keeping, people use slang all the time, it is basic English.…

I think you're being overly harsh on this when it comes to informal communication. As others pointed out, capitalization is similar to white space, punctuation, and other tools that English has when it comes to informal communication. Especially online, you can invoke a lot of imagery and thoughts and emotions by simply playing with the rules of English in a live-chat setting. Try to imagine in a chat the following s…

> Especially online, you can invoke a lot of imagery and thoughts and emotions by simply playing with the rules of English in a live-chat setting

how about simply taking the sentences at face value?

"We need to improve on XXX"

Almost certainly means exactly what it says, no need to look for hidden emotions where most probably there are none.

We as humans have used written communication for millennia and no emotion got lost when they needed to be conveyed.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#223
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should probably spend more time on the internet, or be a bit more relaxed. Many people uncapitalize for stylistic effects, say to portray how you're uninterested or chill you are, which are very common young people signals for "I'm cool". Other than that plenty of non idiots forget to capitalize a sentence.

I spend too much time on the internet. I would strongly argue that using the same style/level of English (punctuation, capitalization, grammar) that a seven year old knows is far more communicative and understandable than using incorrect punctuation and worrying if a full stop means someone is angry. Perhaps people should just read the content of the message and stop worrying about the set-dressing. "They capitalized…

So, people should stop being humans? Are you also offended when you hear that the clothes you wear give off an impression?

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#224
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work with a lot of people from abroad, where English isn't their first language. I also have a lot of friends who are foreign too. Trying to read into the "tone" is pointless. Simple sentences, with punctuation and grammar goes a long way. A benefit of not having tone imbued as some intangible quality of how a sentence is written down makes it very easy to communicate with them. If they are pissed off, they just sa…

I work with the exact same setup and demographics across the globe, from Eastern Europe to China to India to Japan to the US to South America. These aren't US specific Gen-Z rules, these are quite global. This is happening far outside the scope you're limiting it to, and it matters.

> This is happening far outside the scope you're limiting it to, and it matters

Do you mean that you usually interact at work with people than cannot properly capitalize sentences, like we learned to do in primary school in practically any language that uses the Latin alphabet?

I capitalize English because capitalization in my language (and any other language I can write) follows the same exact rules.

It is a rule, it doesn't take much, capitalizing sentences at best proves that people know the basic grammar rules of the language and know when and how to use them, nothing more.

Not doing it proves that people either don't care or don't know the basic rules of the language, which says a lot more than doing it properly.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#225

Very american reaction: reading too much into text messages and expecting superficial over friendliness. That's not a gen z thing. That's an entitle US social media projection.

This is as accurate in Europe, and much of it has been for the last 15 years at the very least.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#226
My only impression after reading this is that gen z must be filled with anxiety constantly. My stomach hurts. Why are they like this? Why are they making so many negative assumptions about the other participant in a conversation? Why is everything malicious?

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your message was literally harder to parse without capitalization.

There’s a beautiful irony in claiming people who don’t use capitalisation are idiots/lazy, followed up by complaining that you struggle to parse a sentence without capitalisation. Your views say far more about your own intelligence/laziness than anyone else’s.

> followed up by complaining that you struggle to parse a sentence without capitalisation.

Grammar and punctuation exists for a reason. Try reading a book without any.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#228
post #15

> 9. Capitalizing the first letter in a sentence will reveal where you are This one really surprises me, if someone contacted me without bothering to type a proper sentence I would just think they're an idiot. Everyone I know always starts a sentence with a capital letter, no matter the platform. They all know how to use the shift key. This isn't even gate keeping, people use slang all the time, it is basic English.…

I was disappointed to see that Sergey Brin (Gen X) didn't capitalise emails (sometimes at least). See the first email in this article: https://www.businessinsider.in/emails-from-googles-eric-schm...

I would consider that lazy and unprofessional. If a new hire communicated to the C-levels like that they would probably be scolded, but no one is going to scold the CEO.

Wasn't the whole Blackberry shtick about having a full qwerty keyboard so the business folk could send messages that didn't look like T9 gibberish?

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#229
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spend too much time on the internet. I would strongly argue that using the same style/level of English (punctuation, capitalization, grammar) that a seven year old knows is far more communicative and understandable than using incorrect punctuation and worrying if a full stop means someone is angry. Perhaps people should just read the content of the message and stop worrying about the set-dressing. "They capitalized…

So, people should stop being humans? Are you also offended when you hear that the clothes you wear give off an impression?

> Are you also offended when you hear that the clothes you wear give off an impression?

What am I offended at? Clothes do give off an impression, just like using basic grammar and punctuation.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I agree Those examples just sound real lazy Gen Z writing The other ones I kinda agree (with measure), but this one is awful. Then they ask why "is it so hard to get a job". Job market issues aside, don't come across as a dork.

> Job market issues aside, don't come across as a dork. Not disagreeing with you, but I think what constitutes as being a dork depends heavily on the situation (workplace culture, etc.). Writing like a Gen Z doesn't necessarily make one a dork. I'd argue that the reverse is true: not writing like everyone else (i.e. completely ignoring the so called "Gen Z Netiquette") makes you a dork for being inept at adapting to…

> Writing like a Gen Z doesn't necessarily make one a dork.

If a Gen Z can't write basic sentences with basic grammar and punctuation then that shows poor English skills. In the work place setting, as the OP was talking about, this is really important. It also shows lack of awareness or respect or empathy because they can't communicate to their intended audience (colleagues/interviewer) using language appropriate for the setting (a professional work place).

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