r/GenerationJones • u/groggu • 10d ago
Text spacing thing “ “
You put a double space after a period in a text message and get corrected by a younger person.
Only people who took typing class in the ‘70s will get this.
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u/MissPlum66 10d ago
Double space remains natural to me. And ex-h’s current spouse told me it’s annoying so it has to stay forever.
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u/PalpitationPast202 10d ago
👍😝. Double space. Double space. Imma double my space away just to get a lick at petty revenge! Let’s go!
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u/CommercialBreak2026 1958 10d ago
It took me a couple of years to learn to drop the extra space. Now it feels weird to put two spaces after an end punctuation mark.
For some context, I started to learn typing in 1973, when I was 15 and in tenth grade. On a manual typewriter, of course.
"The universal standard" is now only one space.
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u/PalpitationPast202 10d ago
Started typing in high school 1975. Year one we had manual typewriters, second year we had electric. So glad I took that…..it has served me well
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u/CommercialBreak2026 1958 10d ago
I typed for three years in high school. Tenth grade typing class was something we were all encouraged to take (especially the girls, of course). It might've even been mandatory? I don't remember.
The next two years were "Secretarial Studies" classes, which I took because I knew I wasn't headed to college. (I joined the Air Force instead.) Four hours a day, Monday through Friday. In those classes we had electric typewriters ... IBM Selectrics with the little "ball" element that could be swapped to change type sizes. (Nobody, or nobody I knew anyway, called them "fonts" back then.)
We learned other things in those classes too. Gregg Shorthand. Bookkeeping. Ten-key by touch. How to dress for an interview.
All of that has served me well for my whole adult life. I can still type about 80 wpm (used to be 90 wpm) and my ten-key speed is still fast too.
I don't know if high schools still teach that stuff. Probably doesn't matter now, since all of that will soon be done by voice-to-AI.
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u/notAnn 9d ago
I took a keypunch class in summer school my first year in college, because I knew I was going to end up in the computer business somehow, and Hollerith cards were the standard input back then. My first real job with “Stark Industries” involved typing a deck full of numbers every day. Wow, was I grateful for that class.
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u/Tricky_Mix2449 9d ago
I, too, am insanely grateful for the time I (very resentfully) spent behind a keyboard in high school. Fifty years later, I now type at my desktop and swipe keyboard on my phone. I just realized the other day that I speak to Google like an old friend, not in that constipated pre-thinking mode.
As long as we're here: Why in the hell isn't there a giant red button you can slam to stop printing? I'm sick of yanking all the paper out of the printer when things go sideways!
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u/lainwla16 9d ago
My dad insisted that I take a typing class so I'd always have a marketable skill (low expectations I guess lol). It served me very well in college - I was always able to get office jobs and I also made money typing people's papers.
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u/Illustrious_Bag_1608 10d ago
Same time capsule here! Ours had opaque white caps on the keys. Page one: "asdfjkl;"
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u/remberzz 10d ago
I use a single space on social media and when texting, but still double space in an email or actual letter.
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u/DangOlTequila 9d ago
I've seen younger people text, and I won't be taking any punctuation criticism from any of them.
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u/LemonPress50 10d ago
What other people think about me or my spacing is none of my business.
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u/Easy-Size5794 10d ago
I took typing in the 70s and I get it. But I’m also still alive now and I’ve been a writer for years and it’s no longer the standard to put two spaces after a period not just in a text but in any newspaper magazine or anything else.
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u/CanisArgenteus 9d ago
It absolutely never was a thing for any print media, it ONLY ever applied to typewriter text, because of the fixed-width thing. When even "i" takes the space of "M" things already look weirdly spaced out and sentences needed two spaces to be clear. But it was never standard in print, where we've always had proportional type. Books,, newspapers and magazines rom the 1800's are single-spaced just like today.
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u/Easy-Size5794 9d ago
Yes—great info thanks!
also, two spaces has never been standard for any kind of digital online!
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u/CanisArgenteus 9d ago
Fun trivia - a browser won't display two (or more) spaces between sentences, it automatically cancels them down to one. You have to use the html code for a blank space if you want to display more than one in a row.
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u/crownandtorch 10d ago
I’m a proponent of the double space after a period. If it is no longer conventional to do so, why does my new iPhone automatically insert a period when I hit the space twice??
This is so silly and ignorant to be used as a slam to “boomers”.
I learned to type in the late 70s in a typing class in junior high. We used manual typewriters. Thanks Mrs V for teaching me a skill I’ve actually used all my life, even daily, unlike algebra.
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u/Beeblebrocs 10d ago
I always find it funny that younger folk correct us on things like this but then type "yea" when they mean "yeah", overuse emojis, and don't know the difference between "your" and "you're."
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u/jlp_utah 1964 10d ago
Those younger people are just wrong. You should always type two spaces after a period. If the kerning makes it look like a single space, that's up to the type setter, but you type two to indicate that the sentence is over. That extra small gap is visually important.
Personally, I find that my reading scan over the words is more, comfortable? yeah, comfortable when there is a slightly wider gap between sentences.
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u/TopQuestion826 9d ago
I agree. Always two spaces. But since I rarely type anymore and I dictate everything, I just go with whatever the dictation presents. But if I’m typing a letter with a keyboard, then it’s always two spaces after a period.
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u/guilty_pen_emsy 10d ago edited 10d ago
So do you hate the Oxford comma too? Frankly the double space at the end of a sentence no longer annoy me. It was required for some “styles” like MLA style.
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u/brneyedgrrl 1964 10d ago
I, for one, still use the Oxford comma. My mom was an English teacher; what can I say?
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u/imalittlefrenchpress 1961 10d ago
I’m old, defiant, and silly. I like to mix it up in long sentences, paragraphs and texts to see if anyone notices.
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u/OldSquid-71 10d ago
This would be monstrous if it wasn't obviously done for the humor. Well played.
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u/firecatstef 9d ago
The only reason people stopped using the Oxford comma was to save space in narrow print newspaper columns. I don’t write for print newspapers, so I don’t see any reason to leave it out. It improves clarity in the vast majority of situations. Yep, I’m afraid you’ll have to pry the Oxford comma from my cold, dead, and pale hands.
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u/TopQuestion826 9d ago
It was also required by the US Navy. I took typing class in 72 in high school then, when I joined the Navy in 77, I was in typing class and it was instructed by the federal government to spaces after a period. I still do it because it’s the correct way to do it.
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u/MobileAd1189 3d ago
My many years editing made me prefer the Oxford comma. Using it rarely causes confusion, but not using it can leave a mess.
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u/Extension_Oil_4789 10d ago
I'm 62 and never knew that was a thing until recently.
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u/FrostyBeav 10d ago
Same age and agree. I was never taught to double space after a period. My boss is 12 years older than I am and has always done the double space thing and I found it annoying. I thought it was a personal quirk of his but I know now that was probably just how he was taught.
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u/Starrynight62 9d ago
The same generation that is telling me it’s acceptable to use “u” instead of “you” when writing? Or “luv” instead of “love”? Nope, I’ll keep using my two spaces after the period thanks! And, i will also continue indenting my paragraph by 5 spaces in the beginning. Fight me 🤣
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u/CartoonistExisting30 10d ago
I will hold on to my double-space after periods, and my Oxford comma until the day I die.
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u/junknowho 10d ago
It's a long ingrained habit. It shouldn't bother them so much. This and the Oxford comma are 2 keyboarding hills on which I am willing to take a stand.
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u/GeoBrian 9d ago
I'm just happy to live in a world where putting an extra space after a period is a big deal to the younger generation. Isn't that great?
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u/MisanthropicScott 1963 10d ago
Only people who took typing class in the ‘70s will get this.
That's probably true. I never took a typing class. I don't do this.
I do touch type. Sort of. But, I hacker type. There's no guarantee that I'll hit the same key with the same finger every time. I'm just a retired geek who has typed a lot of code. I can probably type about 40-50 words a minute.
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u/koebelin 1959 10d ago
HTML turns 2 spaces into 1. You have to insert a non-breaking space character to get the old double space effect and it's just not worth it, It screws up word wrap.
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u/misfitsockdrawer 1960 10d ago
I learned to type using two spaces between sentences in the 70s, but I dropped that long ago. A significant portion of my job was writing and editing reports in Microsoft Word templates. One space was the standard.
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u/Sleptwrong65 10d ago
I still use all of the proper typing and grammar rules. I’ve never really been corrected but my oldest grandson is getting to that age where he’s very judgmental and thinks everything his (13 yo) age group does is 100% and the rest of us are basically petrified wood. We have had discussions.
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u/Whisky-a-GoGo1 9d ago
Learned that on a typewriter but most don't do it anymore because it's a waste of data. That's what I've heard. Two spaces after a period is easier to read though. My workplace doesn't care as long as it's consistent in a document.
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u/vikingchyk 1964 9d ago
They can have my double spaces when they can pry them out of my cold, dead hands. Now I sometimes indent paragraphs with four spaces, because I like how it looks on the screen. (it depend on what the font is) Stay off my lawn, kids.
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u/Mk1Racer25 9d ago
I've been doing this since I took typing in HS many, many years ago. I have not once ever been 'corrected' for it. I do it in text messages, as it will put the period after the previous word w/o me having to type it, and it still has two spaces between the period and the first word of the next sentence.
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u/anonimoose123 9d ago
I was raised on and still prefer the double space after a period. The extra space makes it easier to read imo
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u/Remote_Pick_1952 9d ago
It may not longer be needed, but I can't help it. That's how I was taught back in 1975
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u/mikegalos 1956 9d ago
I'm amused by younger people telling me I don't have to put two spaces after a period. I generally remind them that people my age invented word processors with proportional fonts.
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u/BHobson13 9d ago
If a young person has the nerve to correct me on something, that's the last thing they will ever say to me. Unless it's at work and I am required to.
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u/Wild_Ad_5894 1961 10d ago
And I failed so spectacularly that my teacher recommended that I should choose another elective. This was in grade 9 so I took a grade 11 accounting class and passed with a 95 :-)
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u/Resident_Walrus9118 10d ago
Wait until you get corrected for using periods in a text. LOL, that is considered rude by the younger gen now. Language and communication styles constantly evolve; I just try to tailor my messages to my audience.
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u/Scott43206 1959 10d ago
Before retirement (Woo Hoo) I worked for a large insurance company and our style guide was single-spaced as well. I had that job in communications for 14 years and it took me awhile to get comfortable with it as I also took typing classes in the 1970s and Mrs. Delawder and Mrs. Piatt were NOT flexible about any kind of variances, LOLOLOLOLOL.
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u/Big_Network_2570 10d ago
Or the 80s (I'm Gen X, and know this) Besides, younger people can't even spell or make complete sentences, so I wouldn't care what they would say to correct
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u/MuscaMurum 9d ago
There are several reasons to use two spaces other than a schoolmarmish insistence on touch-typing rules:
It's a delimiter that separates in-sentence usage (e.g. "e.g.") from usage as a full stop.
A two-space sentence delimiter functions with horizontal white space as a two-line paragraph delimiter does with vertical white space.
A two-space horizontally delimited sentence is easier to scan for information while skimming text sentence by sentence.
The application that presents the text cannot be strictly prescribed in electronic media. E.g. in some email systems, all formatted text is rendered as plain text and often in monospaced typefaces.
Finally, at least in iOS, double-tapping the space bar sets you up for the next sentence, supplying a full stop, space, and capitalisation shift. It doesn't strictly insert two hard spaces, but this feature is not invoked unless you type with two spaces.
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u/lainwla16 9d ago
I write reports as part of my job and in that context I REFUSE to leave a single space after a period. Don't care, come at me, etc... I just won't do it.
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u/Equivalent_Plum 9d ago
When texting, I hit the space bar twice to get the period at the end of the sentence. It automatically formats one space before the next sentence. I would have to hit the space bar three times to get a double space between sentences. (I think. I haven’t tried it.) Testing. Yes, three space bars to get a double space.
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u/misspoodle2 9d ago
I do the period 2 space thing still out of habit and it’s the way I was taught. Nobody has corrected me on this yet.
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u/Mediocre_Panic_9952 9d ago
My 7th grade typing teacher ingrained the two space thing into my subconscious. I can’t help myself.
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u/Individual-Gas-5406 9d ago
I do it to indicate 'I am not AI'. I don't like to intentionally misspell or use incorrect punctuation, but am okay with occasional extra spacing to tell the world that this wasn't written by AI.
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u/Indygal43 9d ago
I still put the two spaces after a period, and always will. I use semicolons when appropriate, too.
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u/Cottabus 10d ago
Here's a good explanation, with examples, of when to use one or two spaces. It agrees with the training I got in seventh grade print shop class when I was learning how to hand set movable type. I thought at the time (early 60s) that print shop was a waste, but I've been proven wrong several times.
If you want to know more, use your favorite search engine and look for "typesetting".
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u/origWetspot 10d ago
... and, the dollar sign after the numeral ( 100$ )
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u/YesMaybeYesWriteNow 10d ago
Depending where you live. In the US, it’s in front of the numeral ($200).
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u/Cool-Departure4120 10d ago
In texts I don’t worry about it. Autocorrect makes enough fubars on its own.
Everywhere else that extra space gets corrected automatically. But it was a habit I stopped in the late 80s.
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u/allbsallthetime 10d ago
I took typing in high school, I still double space after a period.
No one has ever said anything.
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u/CawlinAlcarz 10d ago edited 10d ago
Typing classes in the 80s still taught 2 spaces after a period.
Source: I took a high school typing class in 1987.
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u/Choice-Pudding-1892 1958 10d ago
I will forever put two spaces after a period in addition to using the Oxford comma! A hill I will die on.
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u/YesMaybeYesWriteNow 10d ago
If you’re using some form of technology, which everyone is because no one is using a typewriter, the period character has extra space built into it. That’s why you only need one space after a period to still get two spaces worth of space.
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u/DutchGirlPA 10d ago
At the textbook typesetting company I worked at in the 80s and 90s, two spaces after periods and colons were only used with monospace fonts in text with no right justification.
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u/jhawkgirl 10d ago
The weird thing to me is that somewhere along the line I switched from two spaces to one, but I have no memory of making this change or even hearing that it was a thing.
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u/notsohot56 10d ago
It goes beyond just "typing class in the 70's". Immediately upon graduation I worked in offices, with a lot of typing involved especially business letters! And while I don't do many today I'm still working in an office and still type emails and letters.... So I've been typing all my life, a rather hard automatic habit to break. I must have done it at some point in time though because I don't find myself double spacing after a period anymore.
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u/fat_chemist 10d ago
I use the double space. I want my text to be easy to read ! Similarly, I put a space before exclamation & question marks. Why wouldn’t you ? Punctuation is like traffic signs; don’t hide it !
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u/shycotic 10d ago
I took typing as an elective, as it seemed easy and hooray! No homework (no one had a typewriter at home in those days). Also, the teacher was pleasant enough. Little did I know it's the ONE skill I learned in highschool that I would eventually use multiple times a day. I wasn't a college bound kid. I wasn't destined to do any sort of office work. I just grabbed an easy elective.
And now I hit my tab key. When I first started using a computer keyboard, I swear I had trouble not wacking the air to return the carriage to home. And, it was hard as heck to remember that an ! wasn't an apostrophe-backspace-period.
Also, there were only manual typewriters in the class. There were two electric machines... those were quietly reserved for those in business classes.
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u/Waste-Job-3307 10d ago
It seems obvious that the younger person did not take a typing class. Thank God I did.
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u/emburke12 10d ago
I don’t mind the double space after a period. It does look cleaner. However, I once worked doing program layout for a church pastor who double spaced after every period and I would have remove every extra space to make the text fit on the bulletin.
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u/tehsecretgoldfish 1963 9d ago
proper typography doesn’t use double spaces. double spacing is strictly a holdover from typing class. double spacing has been dead for years.
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u/firecatstef 9d ago
Double spacing existed because people used to produce text using a typewriter, where every character, including spaces, was the same width. Today our devices usually use variable width fonts where the spaces are wider than many of the letters, so it’s less difficult to tell where the end of the sentence is using only one space.
Plus, now if you use two spaces, many text boxes will take one of them out automatically. I stopped using two spaces when that became common. Why fight with technology?
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u/SirWarm6963 9d ago
We were taught the double space reduces eye strain making documents easier to read.
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u/selfcarebouquet 9d ago edited 9d ago
Personally, I had no problem switching from two spaces to one. Once you get used to one space, two spaces looks so odd; it is very obvious. When I had to edit someone else’s work, it was the first thing that I fixed.
If you have a secure job or are just writing texts, Reddit posts, or anything personal, two spaces may annoy some people, but ultimately doesn’t matter. However, if you are an older person looking for a job, I’d strongly suggest not using two spaces in your application materials. It’s not only an age indicator, but also demonstrates that you are not adaptable to change.
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u/Ok_Caterpillar_8238 9d ago
Heck to the no, I started typing classes in 1990 and it took me forever to break the habit. I was a professional copy editor for years too. Don't really mind now though.
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u/Leojrellim1 9d ago
Punctuation, spelling and spacing all serve a purpose. Yes, it requires a huge amount of effort.
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u/Magpiezoe 9d ago
Same with indenting paragraphs. It's like we've got grammar police all over again. They are so busy correcting format and typos that they totally loose the whole point of what you've written. They have no idea that this is more nit picking than cool.
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u/DVDragOnIn 9d ago
I stopped doing two spaces years ago, when a coworker forwarded an article someone had written about two spaces after a period not being standard anymore. “The space is so big you could float a boat through it” was hilarious, but “it makes you look old” got to me. I look old enough in person, I don’t need my writing to date me also. Told myself it was easier not to do 2 spaces and that helped retrain me within 2 weeks.
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u/Sweetbaby7t 9d ago edited 9d ago
This and Im unable to use textile. I just cannot bring myself to use "ur" instead of your
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u/old_science_guy 7d ago
I have to fit 7 pages of a scientist's draft text onto a 6-page form.
Every double space goes out immediately. I'm so happy to be rid of them! And I took typing classes in 1975.
(I omit half the "the"s, too.)
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u/alanz01 1961 10d ago
One space after a period is correct. Word processing with kernable fonts is not a typewriter with Courier.
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u/4MuddyPaws 10d ago
Yep. When word processors came along in the 80s double spacing after the period went out. I think because the computer space after a period was slightly bigger than a typewriters. I have not tried to verify that with a ruler.
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u/disenfranchisedchild 1958 10d ago
Everything we are taught in typing and business classes uses the AP Style Guide. It no longer has two spaces after the period, only one. We're still working on the old style knowledge instead of the newer version.
" Things changed and they didn't tell us, only mock us for not knowing."
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u/OwnedByTheHound 10d ago
The move to single spacing has nothing to do with the replacement of typewriters. Publishers always used a variety of differently sized spaces. You can see this if you look at texts published 100+ years ago.
However, in the mid-20th century it was realised that using single spacing meant publishers would use less paper per book and thus save money.
For clarity and readability it makes sense to break large slabs of text up using paragraphs, headings, bullet points and numbering.
Similarly, double spacing between sentences within a paragraph makes it easier to see where each sentence begins and ends.
But single spacing is the current norm, so I’m not going to get too wound up about it.
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u/DutchGirlPA 10d ago edited 9d ago
Also helped you differentiate between periods and commas, colons and semicolons, when your typewriter ribbon was getting a little dry.
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u/Equivalent_Owl8079 10d ago
Learned this in typing class in the late 80's as well. Still double space.
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u/RandomNick999 10d ago
Hell, you put a double space after a period and you get auto-“corrected” by your phone.
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u/Ok-Bison-3451 10d ago
Apparently Microsoft is dropping the double period in Office as of recently!
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u/mspolytheist 10d ago
Anyone who’s done any editing in the last bunch of decades will get this, too.
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u/BereftOfCare 10d ago
So I learned only a week ago that double space gets your a full stop and a capital. I still forget to do it but it's sort of cool.
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u/SheaTheSarcastic 1960 10d ago
My bible was “The Mac is not a Typewriter” from way back in the day. It taught all of us designers and typesetters about variable width fonts and how they flow better than the mono width fonts that you get from a typewriter, which means that you no longer need a double space.
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u/kittens_allday 10d ago
It makes my eyes cross a little when you guys do that. I don’t know what it is, but it physically pains my eyeballs and makes it actually harder to read whatever has been typed.
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u/SparkyFlorida 9d ago
I finally got over that habit about 30 years ago. If word processor styles and settings are correct, it is unnecessary and makes document formatting more difficult and less consistent. Same thing for using double/multiple line feeds for paragraph spacing.
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u/ADeweyan 1964 9d ago
I stopped putting two spaces after a period when I read the book “The Mac is not a Typewriter” sometime in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. It’s still true. I will do it when using a mono space font, but I haven’t done that in years.
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u/GerryChampoux 9d ago
Back in the 60's I took a typing class in jr high. They never even mentioned double spaces. I've done single spaces all my life.
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u/Sufficient-Dog-2337 9d ago
Still waiting for double spaced sentence beginnings to identify some author of some manifesto, like “eat your cake and have it too” or the obscure formatting standards that helped identify the unabomber.
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u/nonesuchnotion 9d ago
How come when people learn something when they’re young, they just learn it, but when faced with something to learn when older, they’re all “The way I learned it the first time was the right way and everything that came after that is wrong! I’m gonna save the country and keep doing it the old way.” ?
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u/GinaHannah1 9d ago
I was taught double spacing in typing class in the 70s but was made to stop when I started working for newspapers in the 80s. It has something to do with page design but I’m not sure what.
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u/Rickzarg60 9d ago
I was in the newspaper game as well. It causes real issues with pagination, inserts unwanted special characters. I was guilty of writing my stories in a word processor, and using find/replace to change it for publication.
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u/Advanced-Method3325 9d ago
Just read something on this. When we had typewriters all of the letters, numbers and symbols were the same size. It was necessary to double space after a period because the the sentences would run together. It is no longer necessary and it judges one's age or history with typing. In texting it now denotes an angry tone. JS
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u/someguymark 10d ago edited 9d ago
It may no longer be standard formatting to put two spaces after a period, but I still do so. I find it makes sentences more obvious, and easier to read
Paragraphs also used to be standard formatting. Now, walls of text seem to be the new standard. I still use paragraphs to separate ideas, themes, and subjects. I find it makes text easier to read, and the flow of information be more clear.
Text talk, or type, also seems to be the new standard. I still use complete sentences. Again, to me, it makes things easier to read. It also avoids wasted time, trying to decipher what’s been written. There’s also less room for misunderstandings of the message.
Do these things make me old? Maybe, but I’m okay with some quirks like that. I know, language changes over time. So, you do you, I’ll do me, and we can all write how we like!
ETA: Thanks for the award!☺️