I feel like a luddite! Here I was thinking I was so hip, texting, not using too many short forms, but some. I thought I had gotten past my mistaking "lol" several years back and wondering why a colleague would be saying "lots of love." Let me tell you it made me uncomfortable for a while! (hopefully all of you reading this know if means "laughing out loud")
So today I am messaging with my son and as some of you many note on this blog I use "..." often instead of a comma, period or hyphen, or it represents a continuation or some such. Yet today my son messages me "What's with the ellipses?"
Huh? "What ellipses" I respond? Then his messages back "..." So I ask, for me these are just periods, what do ellipses mean in your youthful part of the world? His response "It is a literary convention meaning uncertainty or dishonesty." He quickly added "not that I'm saying your dishonest."
OMG. So now, I don't only have to try to decipher all the text talk around me (my texting still comprises mostly full sentences with the odd "u" or "r" put in to show that I can text, but mostly grammatically correct sentences with caps and periods) but I have to worry about literary conventions.
What is this ellipse thing anyway? Since when did a period, graduate to being an ellipse? It must have done some really amazing sucking up to the grammatical gods to get this promotion.
So, please when you see me using "..." don't think I'm being uncertain or dishonest. Just consider me ill-informed in the new world order! g2g, LoL!
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