I don't know if you all have seen people oohing and ahhing about the oxford or series comma in dating profiles, but I'm a bit sick of it. It's boring, overused, and at best just indicates that you are the sort of person to judge another by their grammar preferences.

So why is it in so many dating profiles? I certainly don't think our collective 7th grade english teachers instilled a deep love for punctuation in our 13 year old minds and souls.

My theory is that there were some clever, yet boring, people writing their lists: "My favorite things are traveling, netflix, and ______". Unable to complete their rule-of-three they being to search. Their eye catches something! It's the oxford comma in their uncompleted list. This is cheeky, this is funny, lets add it to the list.

People love this, and either come to the joke on their own or borrow it from other profile. It spreads like wildfire, but the uninitiated begin to think that liking the oxford comma is a normal and regular thing to do. Liking the oxford comma is something that educated people would do, it is a signal of class and if everyone else likes it then I too must profess a love.

And then there is the now. I see profiles on Hinge. The prompt "Let's make sure we're on the same page about," the response "the oxford comma." I see tinder profiles. "About me: -BLM -Astrology emojis -Crazy about bubble tea -Oxford comma enthusiast"

:angery:

  • Nagarjuna [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    One of the things that sucks about the internet is that it’s made us all realize that none of us are truly unique

    It's made me uncomfortably aware of what a weirdo I am, like, if I'm having minority opinions in communities of 100k then I did something wrong

    • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I've realised I'm too online for the average person, but not online enough to be truly terminally online. I'm in the bizarre greyzone where I know about a million dramas and have little to no stake in any of them. I know enough SCP to be boring at parties but have never written or thought about writing one, and just ignore the lore. I watch Vtubers and love hololive when I have the time but don't like 90% of the stupid memes. I watch a lot of anime, but have only a passing familiarity with the most popular seasonal franchises and like half of the classics. I've read too much theory to be tolerable, but too little to actually discuss.