two-spacing and generations

Recently, this article about whether you should put two spaces after a period at the end of a sentence was forwarded around my circle. (You can guess the verdict by looking at the subtitle, "Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.") You may have been taught to use two spaces there, but you've only seen it in correspondence and friends' writings — you've never seen it in a book or magazine.

The whole thing spawned quite a bit of discussion. My mom, touchingly, asked me if I thought she should therefore change her ways or if it would be OK to keep two-spacing. (My answer? Bring on the new: if nothing else, teaching yourself a new discipline every now and then keeps the mind flexible. This year, stop two-spacing; next year, Dvorak layout!)

Meanwhile, among people around my age, 46 appears to be just exactly the right age to be on the cusp. I learned two spaces at old Churchill HS's high-tech typewriter lab, for reasons that the article talks about; I switched to one in college, when a professor mentioned it. Later I saw one-spacing confirmed in a desktop publishing article (remember desktop publishing?!). Folks only a few years younger learned on computers, and never learned anything but one space; my brothers (6 years older) never learned anything but two. If they switched, it was probably after college. So interesting, to see these changes happening.

We really are at an odd age, so different from generations before and after. I have friends my age who are already grandparents, and friends who are parents for the first time — something I think was probably impossible till just a moment ago. We were the very last people to come of age in the analog era, and the very first to enter fully into the digital. What will they write of us in 100 years?


img credit: Someone

Comments

Stephen said…
What? I am 36 and this is the first time I hear of one spacing! Of course I went to a rural school and had a typing class not keyboarding.

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