Tuesday, June 18, 2019

The lack of a Facebook paragraph-return

I look at my Facebook fairly often; usually every day.
But not as often as some. I’m not enslaved by it.
A friend suggests Facebook is for those lacking a life.
I only have 59 “friends,” not thousands.
And I rarely look at my “feed.”
I drive from Facebook’s “notifications,” which are apparently limited by whatever — the secret algorithm for example.
I noticed “friend” posts or messages often have paragraphs of inordinate length. E.g. a single paragraph for an entire 300-word post (or message).
I come from a newspaper background, where paragraphs are short: two or three sentences.
Most Facebook posts (or messages) are only one sentence, or only one word: “congrats” in bold-red, for example.
There’s a reason for those long paragraphs. The computer’s Q-W-E-R-T-Y keyboard lacks a “return” key. There is a “return” key, but it’s also the Facebook “enter” key.
Hit that key by mistake and all-of-a-sudden you posted what you just did.
My iPhone’s virtual keyboard has a “return” key, but it’s not Facebook’s “enter” key. If a Facebook post (or message) has paragraph-returns it was done from a Smartphone.
I circumvent Facebook’s “enter” function by doing my laptop posts in a word-processor. I can hit the paragraph-return without publishing what I just wrote.
Of course, none of this matters any more. Paragraph length, correct spelling and grammar, punctuation: all are toast
We writers are doomed. Except if I make a mistake, the CONSERVATIVE grammar-police take me to task for being too “liberial” (the kerreck CONSERVATIVE spelling).

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