“my weekend has nothing planned..lol.and yes I did,,and it ended up really ,,,reallyyyyy bad.lol.Long story..Well good luck w that inbox.lol.If you want to talk later and your inbox is looking good,maybe we can talk.lol”
Count them – Four (4) LOLs in one mess of a, what is that, a paragraph? I cannot stand “lol.” I loathe it, actually; it’s a massive pet peeve. Maybe I should start a revolt.I once joined two online dating sites because well, I was newly single, I worked from home and took an aerobics class full of women. I was very limited on my venues to meet men.
The above is one response I received from someone on one of the sites and this is a perfect example of the disaster that the written English language has become. I find most responses were exactly like this one: grammatically jacked up, spelling errors a plenty, a huge lack of confidence in what’s being written, and a blatant lack of respect for proper punctuation. Is it wrong to eliminate someone from the pool because of this? I think OVERWHELMINGLY NO!
Seriously guys, pay attention to what you’re typing. How you’re replying. What you’re trying to convey and for Pete’s sake, SPELL CHECK it before you hit “send.” Honestly, you put your best foot forward on a first date, right? Well, let’s make a better effort to try to impress people with HOW you write, m’kay? I mean COME ON! It’s an online dating site! The first impression is an email! If we were in a bar, would you walk up to a chick and burp in her face? Well, send another email like this and you might as well. This is so annoying and a complete turn off.
I am no Hemingway, but my mother, by trade, was a typesetter and was disappointed in me that I earned a “c” in Typing in high school. I’ve learned to appreciate my mother’s position and the written language is important to me. Sure dudes couldn’t have known that based on my profile, but MAKE AN EFFORT.
Would it have been awful for me to post in my profile, “Look, make an effort in your first email to me. Spell check it, grammar check it, check the punctuation and for God’s sake, do not write ‘lol’ if you want any sort of response.”
PS: Guys, also, post pictures where you aren’t throwing back brews, remove the sunglasses, and seriously, if you want to post a picture of your ripped torso, have someone ELSE take it in a setting more appropriate than your bathroom, OK? DOZENS and dozens of pictures of guys holding cameras in front of their bathroom mirrors trying to look sexy. I find it is difficult to pull off “bad-ass” in front of your shower curtain. Thanks, Woz.
Alicia Wozniak was born and raised in Cleveland, “Woz” now lives in Tampa, with the rest of Ohio. This nearly 40 year old can be found teaching Zumba, promoting Body by Vi, all over Facebook, figuring out Twitter, blogging, and working her full time gig in a marketing division of a textbook publisher. She wonders how many jobs she really needs. If she isn’t moving, she’s unconscious. Life, which includes a Wook and a Weez, is good and as long as the beer is cold and it isn’t snowing, she’ll keep moving forward – Xanax close at hand.
LOL (sorry, just had to )!
I agree 100%.
Once on a personal ad I wrote the following:
If you don’t know the difference between “your”, “yore”, and “you’re”, please don’t reply.
Same goes for “too”, “to”, and “two”.
English is in a constant state of evolution, which is not a bad thing. However, poor grammar and ignorance to the simplest rules makes me convulse like a deranged lunatic. English needs to be comprehendible, if it is not it must not be English. Poor quality in writing confuses everyone; written status updates, Twitter posts, and research papers become inconceivably confusing to the reader when, “your rully purtylol” is really supposed to express, “You’re really intelligent and I would love to go on a date with you sometime.”
I could rant and rave for eons about this, oh dear.
Anyway, I enjoyed reading your post. It was most delightful.
-Stephanie M.
I agree 100%. I’ve even been known to defriend on Facebook if I find someone’s lack of grammar and spelling to be just that bad. With the rise of “text speak”, it seems like everyone has given up on eloquence and just go for the most basic message they could possibly send.
You’re online dating profile, along with the first email I would receive, are your resume, if you will. Would some guy compose a cover letter comprised of “u” rather than you, or a series of “lols”? To me, multiple use of lol reminds me of someone who has a bad case of the giggles.
I could personally never give someone who sent me an email like that a second thought. I would think having any type of conversation with them would be awkward and difficult. Although I do not do online dating, I would expect the prospective date’s “resume” to be a little better than what looks to be a sixth grader’s text message. Great article!
I just snort laughed at, “I find it is difficult to pull off “bad-ass” in front of your shower curtain.” Thank you