This is wrong, right? But why?

[onebatmother]

It's a system-generated email from Photobox:

"Hi,

Have a look at my album I have shared with you on PhotoBox."

Leaving aside the thorny issue of whether one can have "shared" something with someone unilaterally, and whether you can share something "on" something intangible rather than, say, a lawn or a table, shouldn't it read:

"Have a look at the album I have shared with you on Photobox."

Ooh, hard to pin down
It should be 'the album' but I can't put my finger on why either - it's something to do with the possessive.

Have a look at the album.
Have a look at this album.
Have a look at my album.

Have a look at the album on the table.
Have a look at this album on the table.
Have a look at my album on the table.

it sounds system-generated doesn't it, as if a computer wrote it

'invite you to share' would be better wouldn't it

but I suppose if I count dd2 chucking a half-mauled sweet at dd1 which rolls under the sofa and saying 'I have shared them', I have to count someone sharing a web album

sharing doesn't necessarily mean that the sharee is delighted with the idea or even interested

"Would you like to look at my PhotoBox album?" would do the job. No need for sharing to be mentioned.

Ah, but Hassled that is a question, and as such invites a response (admittedly possibly of NO, SOD OFF), which is not the purpose of the original email.

cappie, and true, hassled. Although it would be 'Hey, take a look at my Photobox album!'

My response would be no thank you, of course.

But I think you're right MrsB, it's because the "my" indicates possession which the "share" then needlessly repeats. I think.

the album I shared with you
or my album that I shared

sharing is just more irritating jargon imo

it is all this vernacular of social interaction used about internet usage

I get emails from colleague telling me that they have 'shared a calendar'

well no they haven't, they have just allowed me to look at it and add stuff

oh and they always 'invite' me to share it as we were talking about a party

I'd prefer 'Hi, have a look at my album on Photobox'. Don't need to mention effing 'sharing' at all.

Is it because the clauses 'Have a look at my album' and 'I have shared with you...' can each stand on their own, so need a linking word? I.e. Have a look at my album which I have shared with you.

That said, if you substitute 'the' for 'my' it doesn't sound as awkward, even though it's not grammatically any different.

There's something deeply infantilizing about the way 'share' is used in this respect, isn't there? It's so blooming kindergarten, as if a big moon-faced midwesterner is emphasizing the word to her small charges in the hope that it will sink in eventually. (BTW remember when kindergarten was an exotic Americanism?)

really it should be 'Do you give a toss about my photos? If so click here'

lol Cappie. Or
'Have a look at my photos which I am using passive-aggressively and as currency in my relentless battle to prove that I have a higher socio-economic status than you.'

Reading the mail again I think the worst thing it's the way it's written in the first person when it hasn't come from a person at all.

I know facebook is irritating but at least it says eg 'Wilhelmina has shared a photo album with you. Click here to view it.' rather than generating pseudo-personalised messages.

Or click for proof of my organisational
abilities, technical expertise and wacky sense of humour

it is better than the old days when you had to go round to people's houses to look at their endless blurry photos or, if they were really posh, watch them on a slideshow on a wobbly paper screen

I remember nights like that with my mum's friends when I was a teenager

looking back I think that is around the time I started drinking

It could be changed to (I think):
Have a look at my album which I have shared with you on PhotoBox."

....or album that I have shared with you, maybe?

at numbing the pain.

Actually, it goes downhill from there:

"You can choose to buy prints or photo gifts if you wish. Just click on the link below.

Enjoy,

Sarah"

which implies that you should look at the one on photobox rather than the large pile he has got stored waiting at home
that implies that the album's position in photobox is just one more exciting thing abou it

icanonlydotigers

Yes, that would work, but I would put a comma in I think:
"Have a look at my album, which I have shared with you on PhotoBox."

yes witchandchips. And you're very right about a 'wacky' sense of humour being fundamentally linked to the whole sorry enterprise of sharing online.

The photos are, indeed, wacky.

onebat

Cut to the chase please. Can we see the damn photos?