No offence intended ?

I shall spend all evening updating my emoji knowledge as I am worried about making a mistake and giving offence

Actually, I'm not, if they keep changing the rules it's their problem not mine
????

Maybe they've had to start picking on emojis because they've run out of words they find offensive.

Good grief! Why are phone calls seen as rude? Anyone can use an answering service to screen the calls, if they choose to do so.

Petera

Ailidh

I didn't realize my full stops and other grammatical observances implied aggression. In my case it simply means that a large part of my primary education was undertaken in Scotland where, some sixty years ago, grammar was taught rigorously.

My getting-on-for-middle-aged daughter tells me that 'young' people also consider phoning someone to be rude.

I've never liked phoning people, was so glad when emails, txts and msgs were invented. I always worried that I was interrupting something crucial - but I assumed I was just odd.

Petera

Namsnanny

Phoning someone rude?
Sid she explain how, or why Petera?

Yes, if you phone someone they are expected to stop what they are doing to attend to your phone call. If you send a message however it can be responded to at leisure. At least that's what she said.

Many years ago I did an Office Practices course. We were told then that the phone should be considered the rudest thing on the earth. Simply because whatever one is doing and regardless of how important it is it will be stopped to answer the phone.

What I find rude and annoying regarding the phone is when I am being served in a shop or similar face to face situation and the business phone rings. What does the assistant do? Stops serving me to take the phone call. Why oh why does the phone call take precedence over the customer who took the trouble to travel to the business venue???

Well, I use the full range of punctuation in my messages (including semi-colons), and I love the language of emojis too. Some people may well interpret them differently or not understand the various facial nuances. Lol!

Being of the generation that was taught that spelling and grammar are important, I just can't bring myself to write a text that isn't properly punctuated. I struggle to decipher long streams of words that have no punctuation or capital letters; I have to mentally "correct" it for it to make any sense. The lack of spelling punctuation can have disastrous consequences on the actual meaning:

Let's eat Grandma! ☠
Let's eat, Grandma! ?

Eat your dinner! ?
Eat! You're dinner! ? ? ?

Oh my goodness, I've just seen this.

Please accept my apologies if I have offended anyone by using emoji's or ......

Sorry, I am also a "sticker" fan when sending greeting cards.

I am laughing up my sleeve, right now.

You see, I always assumed that emoticons and the peculiar abbreviations employed in text messaging was a fad for the young, and that no-one who a) was as old as the hills, belonging as I do to their grandparents' generation and b) a SCHOOL TEACHER should employ either, unless they wanted to make fools of themselves.

So I write things out in full, employing the punctuation I grew up with and the young whom I address can like it or lump it, or ask for an explanation.

Now I am glad I didn't waste time and effort trying to work out what all those little smiley faces that I cannot see without a magnifying glass were supposed to mean.

I cannot be bothered looking through those emojis, let alone learning what they are. I shall continue in blessed ignorance.

Ah, that might explain why I received an email recently with no punctuation in it! It was from a business and difficult to make sense of as the phrasing could be misconstrued. My first thought was this persons grammar is appalling, how did they ever get their job.

Whatever young people think I for one shall continue to use full stops and every other form of punctuation, and emojis!

Youngsters always want to have a different ‘language’ than previous generations so it’s quite normal IMO. In my days we used words like trendy and groovy as our own speak.

Oh dear!

?

?

Well, I'm always conscious of poor grammar and spacing when typing, it looks as though I can stop bothering.
I'm still going to use the phone as well, especially when you e.mail someone 4 times and get no reply. I must admit we have very close relations who never answer their landline and some who don't have one anymore.
Maybe what I considered bad mannered was just being "Young" and what will the young consider to be the "IN" thing next using an outmoded expression.
Do we really have to follow their lead, no we can still continue being well-mannered oldies and stop trying to demystify what they decree this week. Leave it to them.

Interesting the comments on previous office training. At my secretarial course in the 70's, I was told that the phone took precedence, as the person you were dealing with personally could see why they were being delayed, whereas the person on the phone wouldn't be able to see why they were being keep waiting!
I was taught to always put commas at the end of each line when addressing an envelope and the address in letters, yet when I started work, was criticised for doing that, with "all those commas littering up the page".
I don't think I've ever managed to keep up, so any emoji offences I've committed can just join the list of things I'm always behind with!

Ooops, since you've just used it, please tell me what that tall oblong means?

This is a good thread I'm still getting used to when my son says 'pass me your tablet' and I give him my medication - I need a magnifying glass to see the emojis anyway

It would seem that some people are determined to take offence no matter what. Snowflakes or what? Is the question mark to passive aggressive? oh I used it again (notice I didn't use a full stop) oh no now I have used a bracket who knows what that means help

: ! ; . ? Apologies for being rude!! I may phone you now.

great to read this thread
i post from a computer where the caps button is jammed as well as some punctuation buttons
im on trend

I really can’t believe this! Grammar and punctuation is wrong, we’re using the wrong emoji? Hold on there just a minute, who has decided this? Grammar and punctuation has been taught and correctly used for generations and now because the youth decide a full stop is passive aggressive we are being told we’re the ones who’ve got it wrong? Oh no I don’t think so. Perhaps it’s the youth that need re-educating.

These youngsters have too much time on their hands. Maybe they need to get out and do some volunteer work to see what the real world is like-not just their “screen world”

but if you don’t use full stops your sentences will run into each other and collide, or do they still use a capital letter to start a new sentence (that isn’t there!?)

Lol (). There's a thread on mumsnet about petty revenge. And someone says she annoys her dd by using a full stop at the end of a text message!
Heck I still put two spaces after my full stops as well. Apparently one is now considered appropriate. Can't do it though.