No offence intended ?

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.

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.

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! ? ? ?

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!

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???

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.

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.

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.

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

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
????

Just in case you need a little help! emojipedia.org/people/

And is this one ?
a grimace or a big grin, please?
(Being unsure, I have always avoided it!)

I've never understood what your first one means, midgey ?

This thread has made me laugh out loud! There is absolutely no hope for me as I don’t know what the emojis even mean…???

SueDonim

To be fair, she does sometimes complain about the ‘yoof’ of today, Bluebell.

I heard my DD doing that when she was about 24, SueDonim ?

Now she's getting towards 40 (oh dear, hope she's not reading this ?)

To be fair, she does sometimes complain about the ‘yoof’ of today, Bluebell.

Yes but 25 is positively old SueDonim ? whoops a smiley
….. well as you can see I like a little ……now and then

I’ve asked my 25yo dd about this, as I’ve read the claim before. She says it’s rubbish and she and her friends still love emojis and splatter them everywhere. She’s also v hot on spelling and punctuation, although her job means that that is an important skill for her to have.

Now, what emoji shall I sign off with? This, I think ———> ?

I refuse to give up good grammar, just as I wouldn't text things like gr8. I hope my friends and family would know that I am not the passive aggressive type! And DS phones me about once a week for a chat. GDs have been known to do so too. If someone is going to take offence at a full stop or a smiley face, then I suspect they are too touchy to be on my radar!

I must confess if I received a skull and crossbones ☠️ emoji from someone I would think they were trying to say my days were numbered rather than they were laughing.

And autocorrect makes a nonsense of everything anyway

A real no-no

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.

Oh!

No-one told my DC they were being rude!

I suppose!! are a real no-on, full stop

???

the phoning thing makes sense.
i was trying to warn someone about being careful with emojis, having heard a comic incident with a mix-up in a shopping list and an aubergine emoji.
anyway, she refused to believe me and said she didn't know why i made up these things.
is that a form of gaslighting. feels like it. she's done it before.

I think they make things up just to upset us ?. We shouldn’t care what they think. ?

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.