The only thing more annoying than someone using "he/she" instead of "they" is someone using it inconsitently. One sentence would use "he", and another would use "he/she". Sometimes, even in the same sentence.
@dopey_kun@fujiwara Even from a typing standpoint, how does "he/she" make more sense than "they"? It uses more characters, requires you to use a slash, and most importantly, it still breaks the flow when reading.
It always felt so unnatural back when I used "he/she" (but that was before I found out about singular "they", so it was to replace "he"). Once I found out about singular "they", it's "they" all the way for me.
@fujiwara@rgbunny@dopey_kun A lot of it is also generational or cultural. Lots of older non-Americans and Americans were trained to use "he/she," and when you're trained to write that way, sometimes it's hard to shake something that becomes ingrained. I had this discussion about a year ago with some older folk and they just genuinely didn't grow up using "they" naturally. For them, it's more natural to say "he/she," and it was nothing to do with exclusion. If anything, these folks were pretty inclusive! (As a basis for how old these ppl were, I am 35.)
That doesn't apply to everyone, of course, some people just hate change (it's why you have to trot Shakespeare and hope somone is convinced lol) and other people just don't know how to write consistently. ^^; (See dopey's example)
@naan@rgbunny@dopey_kun Yeah at the end of the day I'm probably just looking too deep into it. I just feel like it doesn't flow very well but I doubt that most of the time it's out of spite or anything... Luckily nobody has done it on Mastodon but I've had people use he/she when talking about me like come on!! :btr_seika_bruh:
@fujiwara@rgbunny@dopey_kun yeah that's a little weird lol, if I'm talking to someone online, I could visit their profile quick just to get an idea of who they are XD
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