Ready for backlash with this one...

[Netflixandaps]

AIBU to expect on dating sites for men around my age group 40-50 to be able to write a sentence like an adult rather than it being like I am communicating with a 12 year old on Snapchat..... They still write 'u', 'wot', '2', 'ru', 'ere', 'b', 'cud' (I could go on)... My absolute favourite is the question 'wot u up 2'.. Surely to goodness I'm not expecting too much?

Is this true? I have zero communication with anyone under the age of 30 so genuinely have no idea if younger people abbreviate or not…

You are not alone OP.

I think the worst one I have come across was 'dis' instead of 'this'.

I also asked him why he didn't just type one extra letter and use the correct word. He thought he was hilarious. I didn't obviously.

It's mostly older people. I'm 28 and my friends and I write in full sentences even for very casual conversation. I do use some abbreviations for very common phrases though; imo, iirc, tbf, etc.

The modern equivalent of text speak (or l33t speak as it used to be known) is a kind of weird baby talk. "Heckin", "snoot", "pupper", sticking a "the" in where it doesn't belong, uch. Some of my friends do it and it's gross.

I'm older, nearly 50, and have never done it. I remember sending my first text message from my first mobile, a Nokia.

Do they think they're being down wid da kids? As in it will make them seem more attractive to younger women not realising that text speak has gone out of fashion with actual younger people.

ASL?
😂

I completely agree, full sentences and words all the way, Favourite, ironically, is one of the worst to shorten, as in:
"who's fave pass time"

They abbreviate:
Wyd?
Nm. Hbu?
Dk.

Sorty but this is BS my 20yo son and his mates do this all the time. I type my words out fully and I'm in my 50s.

OP youre post sounds like the English police on MN again....!

It wouldn't bother me if someone else messaged me like this as long as I understood their message. The person is more important than how they use shorthand to message me.

If you write out a message in full they might think you're prissy or they might adopt you're style, you never know.

Several years ago I matched with a guy on OLD who seemed nice enough but his grammar and spelling were shocking, it was hard work translating his messages so it fizzled out and we never met up.

18 months later, I met him IRL when i joined a local hobby group and we are now married and expecting a baby. He’s still rubbish at texting to this day, I’ve no idea why as he is an amazing, intelligent man with a good job and happy life.

i still don’t like sloppy spelling and grammar but I’ve learned my lesson not to judge now :)

I'm not sure it's definitely an older thing. I've been there from the beginning with mobile phones and have never done it. Not sure I know anyone in my generation who does or has.

Yes it is true but only based on my DC and how they message me. No txt spk.
Especially with auto-complete and full touch screen keyboards on phones. It’s much easier today than back in the early 00s when you were using numerical keys on a phone and each one had 3 letters so you had to press say ctrl and then tap #5 three times to get an L.

I have teens. They do not text in full sentences or use grammar.

People who use burner type phones or cant type do this.

Wrong dating site, picking the wrong type of men?

I hate it and did use it to filter out men. I have a friend who does it on purpose to be "ironic" or something and it drives me crazy.

Also hate men who message for weeks or months but never ask you on an actual date.

Agree. Huge turn off. People who say “Was you busy” make my toes curl too.

Nope - met my DP online, he’s wonderful, caring, loving, I could use the whole list of good adjectives. Know others who are also in happy relationships after meeting online.

it’s work weeding out the bad ones but it’s the same IRL. I also think which app you’re using makes a big difference

I think it’s great. You can Pre-Ewww them without having to go to the effort of replying to them. Better they show you who they are now than a month of eloquent messages then when you finally meet they are something else completely.

Nope not for me - I’d want to date an intelligent grown up who can string a sentence together

in OLD the bar for standards must be very high
the bar for crap/ sexual sleeze/ general ick should be very low

i met current chap on OLD he wasn’t/ isn’t sleezy or disgusting at all even after we met. It was a refreshing change
and he can write a proper sentence

Same here. And he uses full sentences/words and proper grammar! I just didn’t engage with the ones who didn’t. I’m not a snob but i do have an English degree so txt spk is sacrilege to me.

Students in school definitely use 'txt spk', worse still when it translates into their writing. They are shocked when told it's not acceptable.

I would not reply. Bin and Move on.

Yeah I reckon I’d be disappointed and put off by that as well, thinking about it. Like communicating with a teenager or child. Not sexy.

Text speak (txt spk) only ever became a thing when we would pay 10p per message and a message only had about 30 characters. So much to say, so little money to say it.