What is it about the text messages and emails sent by older people that make me feel like I'm having a stroke?
𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐃𝐚𝐝@jorts.horse to 
What is it about the text messages and emails sent by older people that make me feel like I'm having a stroke?
Maybe they're used to various shortcuts in their writing that they picked up before autocorrect became common, but these habits are too idiosyncratic for autocorrect to handle properly. However, that doesn't explain the emails I've had to decipher that were typed on desktop keyboards. Has anyone else younger than 45 or so felt similarly frustrated with geriatrics' messages?
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Yes! This is what I always associate with older folks texting or emailing. I use ellipses a fair bit for (my attempts at) comedic effect. Some older folks are using them on a whole different level, having this weird habit of ending sentences with them where most people would use a period or exclamation point. It can come off sounding very ominous.
"Bill is coming over."
Okay, cool. Have fun with Bill.
"Bill is coming over ..."
Grandpa, are you in trouble? What's Bill going to do???
I'm old and i use ellipses frequently, but my family would understand that i mean -
Bill is coming over and you know i hate that fucker so please call or stop by to save me if you don't hear from me in a bit.
I think your Grandpa is expecting you to infer something from the ...
"What's the matter?"
"Do you want me to come over?"
"Oh, great! And?"
"Oh, ok. Have fun, then. Tell Bill I said hi!"
I'm old and I use ... to indicate that I'm gonna continue that sentence, but because I'm slow to write, I give you a chance to participate/continue. Especially if the sentence is going to be long.
Bill is coming over...
Well that nice.
...but I can't stand the fucker.
Oh.
...from the what ??! say it, goddammit !
Well, I'm old-adjacent and I literally don't think either of my grandpas so much as touched a cell phone or computer in their lives, but I get your point.
I am a younger millennial. I use ellipses all the time tbh. But I never use them at the end of a sentence like that. I tend to use them in the middle of a sentence often to break it up if it seems to long and I don't want the formality of a semicolon.
Yeah, for me (an elder millenial), I use them in the middle of a sentence in the form of a dramatic pause, or sometimes at the start of a sentence in specific cases. I'm not saying any of this is necessarily grammatically correct (or that the boomers are wrong for how they use them), but this is just what feels closest to regular speech to me.
I'm old and almost never use ellipsis and I will correct everybody's punctuation and typography as a matter of principle (at least in my own language, not being confident enough with English rules to do it there).
Also ellipsis is a single character: … (it does take 3 keys though)