this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2025
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At my last job, a bunch of the older folks did not realize they had a "two spaces" habit.

It's a clear tell.

Saw this meme and thought I'd point that out.

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[–] DharkStare@lemmy.world 89 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

The "two spaces" habit is because that was proper typing etiquette back in the day. You would lose points on on submitted papers if you didn't do that. I still do th two spaces when typing on a computer but use a single space on my phone.

What’s funny is I finish my sentences with two spaces on my phone because that is the shortcut for a period and a space.

[–] Nougat@fedia.io 15 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Yeah, I think this is more of an "over 50" thing. Someone who's 40 today would have been born in 1984. That would have had them graduating high school in ~2002 - well into the computer age and not ever having to do anything on a typewriter.

[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

I'm 38 and I do it despite knowing it annoys people. It's just how I learned to type. Idgaf

[–] legion02@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago

The MLA guidelines didn't change until 2019.

[–] cowboydiplomat@startrek.website 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I’m 35 and I learned two spaces in school growing up :shrug:

Then later I learned it had changed so I stopped doing it. :double shrug:

[–] immutable@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yea 39 checking in, that’s the way I was taught to type in school as well. I never broke the habit and still do double spaces after a full stop.

I’d honestly be more surprised that someone could tell enough to be bothered.

[–] T0RB1T@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can't not notice it. It jumps out at me, the exact same as when someone does a non-three-dot ellipse.

I feel like the Monty Python priest with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

"Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out."

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

The non three dot ellipse gets worse on some devices that replace the "..." (three individual dots) with '…' (one symbol with three dots that have slightly different spacing to the three individual dots). "...." looks wrong but it’s worlds better than "….".

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

31 here. I learned double first, and at some point it switched to single. I don't remember when.

[–] essell@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm mid 40s and was taught the double space practice, I guess it depends on when you first learned this stuff, it was very uneven teaching back then

Yeah, I think this is more of an β€œover 50” thing.

Someone born in 1976 is either 48 or 49 right now, which is well inside the "two spaces" era. So you've go a couple more years to clear these folks out before its an "over 50 thing".

I'm 47. Was definitely taught the two spaces thing. We still did it on word processors when they replaced typewriters.

[–] vladmech@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

42 here and was taught the two space method in high school typing class but eventually retaught over to one space maybe 15 years ago.

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 4 points 1 year ago

I'm in the first half of my 40s. I was taught on typewriters in middle school and have been putting two spaces when using a physical keyboard ever since.

[–] HeyJoe@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

41, and I am one of those people as well. I had no idea it's not something that should be done anymore. To celebrate, i only used 1 space in this post!

[–] VubDapple@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Two spaces was taught in school typing classes. An artifact of mechanical typewriters I expect but that is why us olds do it that way.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Two spaces on the phone will put the period in for you on most keyboards. So there's that.

[–] ArtieShaw@fedia.io 6 points 1 year ago

Oddly enough, I've found that many of my younger coworkers can't touch type. It makes sense that they won't use two spaces if they never learned that muscle memory. It seems unlikely that someone who's using the hunt and peck method would have that habit ingrained.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Some messaging services will crush whitespace, which can make it really fucking fun to communicate things like guitar tablature or Python code snippets. Either way you might type double spaces but it only saves singles. I typed this message with double spaces but Lemmy displays it single spaced.

[–] Slatlun@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

I see double spaces between your sentences. Confirmed by copy/paste