Good-Bye Apostrophe, I Will Miss You

One thing I loved about the Nexus 7 tablet was the onscreen keyboard. I had several punctuation choices available without changing to the symbols keyboard. It was nice. I had my apostrophe and my hyphen right there with my letters. I also had easy access to quotation marks and the @.

It wasn't just nice, it was perfect.

Today I got the KitKat update. Android added the much anticipated emojis, but that was not the only change they made. They took away the extra punctuation on the main keyboard, making it more like a phone keyboard.

I can still access my punctuation marks by going to the symbols keyboard, but that is two extra clicks every time I want to punctuate. And you know what? I do not use apostrophes when I write, but I definitely use them when I am on Twitter, trying to make each word as small as possible. I use them in casual correspondence, too. And I use at least one hyphen in every email I send. That is, I did, until Android put them two clicks away from my letters.

I know there are people who are very excited about the emojis (even though they only work if the person receiving them is also running KitKat on their device, making them seem pretty useless to me). But the addition of brightly colored pictures does not sway me, and it does not make up for the loss of a wide array of punctuation on the main keyboard.

We already have a whole generation of people who write in text speak. They have lost the ability to spell even the simplest of words. Apostrophes are often misused, and my eyes are constantly assaulted by people who do not know when to use "your" or "you're," but I do not think making punctuation less accessible is the answer. It seems like a step backward to me.

We might as well just give everyone paintbrushes and a cave wall, because apparently real words and proper punctuation are no longer needed to communicate.

Android, you can keep your emojis, just give me back my apostrophe.

*NaBloPoMo is better with apostrophes.

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