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Gen Z Netiquettes

manyonepercents.substack.com

231–240 of 269 posts

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#231
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It’s written to be funny but I can vouch that these rules, such as they are, are all more or less correct.

I asked my daughter and her friend who was with her (both 20) if there's a difference between "I'll be home" and "I'll be home." They confirmed, and said the latter is much more serious. And this is in The Netherlands. I proposed that they were (sort of) pronouncing the punctuation, as in "I'll be home. Period.", and it seems to sound that way. Odd, but it seems wide-spread.

> pronouncing the punctuation

I do not think you can think of it that way. It's said that the subtleties of spoken language are lost in text, but in this case, the subtleties of the written word are lost in spoken language.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never use any kind of messaging platform that insists on "Read receipts", or even worse, the typing breadcrumbs. Fuck that shit, I'll reply when I'm good and ready, that's a big part of what makes it fun. You never know when you're going to get a sweet little squirt of dopamine == unexpected or surprise reply

I consider everyone with read receipts off on WhatsApp someone with mental issues: They crave control and deprive me of context/cues/metadata that already became mainstream. It‘s just like someone only talking to you while wearing a mask that hides their face.

I read messages when they come in because they might be urgent and it does not take very much effort to read a message. Most messages are not urgent, however, and the response (or worse, ensuing real-time conversation) often does require some effort. So if I happen to be engaged in something I'll frequently choose to postpone responding until a more convenient time.

In the past people have taken advantage of this "mainstream" metadata to interrupt me further with increasingly desperate follow-ups and/or to jump to cynical assumptions about their value to me as a person unnecessarily jeopardizing our relationship.

So like GP I turn this functionality off and refuse to use platforms that don't allow it to be disabled. This "feature" is not required for good faith conversations between non-adversarial parties.

Do I crave control over your context? Only insomuch as I refuse to be at the 24/7 beck and call of anyone with a phone. If you want to have a real-time discussion with me you can either have the good fortune to have contacted me at a moment in which I was not otherwise occupied or you can schedule a time with me in advance.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#233
post #91

Stupid question perhaps, but how does one separate sentences without fullstops then?

The rule should have been to not use a full stop for the last sentence. You still need them to separate your sentences (unless you send them as separate messages)

  or like some people
  i chat with
  who send the whole sentence
  as separate messages

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why are you moving the goalposts? The comment is specifically referring to capitalisation, not all grammar, and punctuation wasn’t even mentioned.

I have absolutely zero difficulty parsing uncapitalised text. Most of my communication is and has been uncapitalised for the past 20 years. Including in professional context (Slack, git etc). If you’re struggling, it’s because you’re lazy, not because it’s difficult.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#236
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, i…

I think you hit the nail on the head - at a certain point caring about every single rule isn’t effective or is actually net less effective.

On HN I’ll use correct punctuation, grammar, and a wider set of vocabulary because there’s a good chance my message will come across more clearly.

For general emails, I’ll write with simpler language because it’s very much a get-in-get-out activity especially with more senior stakeholders.

For work comms, what’s the value in typing HN-style? Everyone already knows everyone else is smart. I believe communicating tone is more valuable than perfect punctuation and grammar, which make it much harder to get that across.

Or as my grandma used to say - you don’t treat people you want to be treated, you treat them the way they want to be treated.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#237
post #4
post #2

Is this written sarcastically?

No. It’s written to be funny but I can vouch that these rules, such as they are, are all more or less correct.

I have a much younger cousin who happens to be Gen Z and he said that it's mostly exaggerated but saw some elements of it when talking to girls. He's a freshman in university at the moment.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#238
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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, i…

I think you hit the nail on the head - at a certain point caring about every single rule isn’t effective or is actually net less effective. On HN I’ll use correct punctuation, grammar, and a wider set of vocabulary because there’s a good chance my message will come across more clearly. For general emails, I’ll write with simpler language because it’s very much a get-in-get-out activity especially with more senior sta…

> at a certain point caring about every single rule isn’t effective or is actually net less effective

My point is the exact opposite though: I've been writing like this for all of my life, for at least 40 years, to write like I don't care I need to actually think about it and put a lot more effort into it, because it feels unnatural, looks wrong and makes me immediately doubt of the quality of the content I produced.

Especially at work, where when I write something, it is for other people to read, sometimes many.

But I also capitalize my personal notes.

So, to me, your explanation of why you don't do it sounds like "look at me, I don't follow rules because we are all smart here, right guys? ... right?".

Don't want to be offensive, but correct grammar should be muscle memory by now.

Relying on muscle memory is good because it works on autopilot and let you focus on what's important.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of it isn’t just chat native stuff imo. All the rules around instagram likes and reposting, the rules around “k”, that “:)” is passive aggressive etc. A lot of that feels juvenile which makes sense if it’s a gen z post. I’d guess it’ll stop once out of teens and early to mid twenties. I think when people are more secure/confident they stop doing as much meta analysis of this kind.

k

Yes, feeling offended about being called young is part of the package too. We know, we used to be.

Re: Gen Z Netiquettes

#240

> 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 used to feel the same but I now had to teach two otherwise intelligent juniors that work communication is formal and sentences do start with a capital. So apparently it got lost at some point.
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