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Overuse of "@"

lionheartednyhc

lionheartednyhc

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Is anyone else getting annoyed at the overuse of the "@" symbol since twitter has become popular (don't even get me started on that). I keep seeing it everywhere; for instance in front of URLs and such.


AAAAAAAH
😱
 
@lionheartednyhc: I'm not sure what you mean. 😀

Actually, I kind of like it on comment threads where there isn't a true quote or reply option. It helps clarify which comment the response is for.
 
I think the OP may be referring to uses on social networks that don't even make sense. Before Facebook added the @ functionality to status updates, I would see people using it in this manner:

"I went out to lunch with @Johnny today and we had a great time at the diner."

Why would you do that?! 🙄
 
SuperSnake2012 said:
I think the OP may be referring to uses on social networks that don't even make sense. Before Facebook added the @ functionality to status updates, I would see people using it in this manner:

"I went out to lunch with @Johnny today and we had a great time at the diner."

Why would you do that?! 🙄
Click to expand...

Do people really do that?! If my friends started to do that, I would get really annoyed...
 
@ MasterDev, Yes, they have.

@OP, I also find it annoying to the point I sometimes loose myself in the micro post.

@Iscariot, not an easy solution for OP.

@myself... STOP SAYING @ DAMIT😡😡
 
SuperSnake2012 said:
I think the OP may be referring to uses on social networks that don't even make sense. Before Facebook added the @ functionality to status updates, I would see people using it in this manner:

"I went out to lunch with @Johnny today and we had a great time at the diner."

Why would you do that?! 🙄
Click to expand...

These people were likely making use of the feature that would allow Twitter to update your Facebook status. So whatever they typed in Twitter showed up in Facebook, which is why you see the @Johnny.
 
@lionheartednyhc, I think people are just making it easier to reference who they're "speaking" to and this is a good way. I do it, but you won't find me doing it outside of web forums and such.
 
I think it's role in a social networking site is probably great. It can also be used in a forum environment in the form of a reply. In fact, if vBulletin was a bit of a more Web 2.0 (3.0?) system, I think that using "@" to reply to comments would be pretty handy.
 
Wasn't the @'s symbol purpose is to signify "at"? I don't see any problem on Twitter users... (I know it's overused though.)
 
It's possible you may need to get out more if things like that are starting to bother you. (you're among people who understand.)

I use it sometimes to let a person know I am referring to them; alternatively, sometimes I bold their username. I don't think I over-use it but even if you think so, that's just too damn bad. 😛
 
I'm not on twitter and I don't follow people twitter so I've not really noticed an uptick in "@" usage.

[crawls back under rock]
 
As a lawyer, I am normally incredibly intolerant of things which deviate from standard conventions or have come into common usage due to the Internet or trends.

However, I have absolutely no problems with the use of the @ symbol. I don't think it is overused at all, unless you believe things like e-mail addresses are overused. On twitter it is used in front of a person's tweet ID to address a tweet to a particular person. Nothing wrong with "Having dinner with @Elmo @Grover" (except perhaps the fact that the world probably doesn't want to know I'm having dinner with characters from Sesame Street).

I guess the reason why I don't have a problem with this is because it does not break the convention for the use of the @ symbol. It is perfectly correct to use it as an abbreviation for 'at'. Emboldening names etc to convey the same might work on forums like this, but it doesn't work on things like SMS or twitter for obvious reasons.

The above all said, I don't believe the @ symbol should ever be used in formal drafting/writing on the basis of the rule that one should not abbreviate in such circumstances (so no abbreviated apostrophes, ampersands and @ symbols).
 
raggedjimmi said:
It makes me think of Twitter, which annoys me 😛. No thanks I'll stick to bolding names and the like.
Click to expand...

I agree. I don't find it particularly annoying (in fact not at all), but I only use it on Twitter for replies or to condense a tweet. Or for email addresses, obv.

In Teh MR, I prefer bolding a name if I want to direct my remarks.
 
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