3 ms·
What really bugs me is use of the first person plural, which Microsoft (among others) seems to be doing a lot recently. I feel like I'm being talked down to. "
by impendia 1y ago
What really bugs me is use of the first person plural, which Microsoft (among others) seems to be doing a lot recently. I feel like I'm being talked down to.
"Let's add your Microsoft account." No, let's not.
- simonask 1y ago"Let's" in English does not mean "let us". I mean, it literally does, but language is not literal. For the record, I also dislike the familiarity.
- card_zero 1y agoI dislike the dishonesty. Compare to this line from Office Space: "I'm gonna need you to go ahead and work Saturday". Here go ahead implies that you're being given permission to joyfully do some work you were eager to do. In the Microsoft example, let's implies that this is a bright idea for something fun for you to do with Microsoft, your friend with your best interests at heart.
- BrandoElFollito 1y agoAs a non-English speaker, my understanding of no ahead did not have any joyful connotation. It was rather to express that someone will need to do something that has an initial friction, so not enjoyable.
- bregma 1y agoYour understanding does not match the broadly accepted idiomatic meaning of the expression. The humour comes from the implied inversion of sacrifice, a kind of irony.
- efdee 1y agoI can't think of any situation where "let's" does not mean "let us"?
- tommica 1y ago"Let's go!"
- lionkor 1y agoLiterally "let us go", there's no way around the literal meaning
- RiverCrochet 1y agoLet literally means "allow." In many cases where this is said, the person saying it isn't blocking/preventing/gatewaying anyone from going. So the literal meaning of "allow" is not intended.
- esafak 1y ago"Let's go" never means "let us go". Just try to articulate it as such! I can't.
- toast0 1y agoShall we go? Let us go / Let's go / Let's If you don't want to use the full form, it shan't stop me.
- esafak 1y agoI don't know if I'm being clear. Say you and your family were imprisoned. You would never demand to be released by saying "let's go!". Your bemused family might well ask "Where, to the other corner of the cell?"
- efdee 1y agoYou can't always replace "let us" with "let's", but you can always replace "let's" with "let us".
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- ninkendo 1y agoI literally returned a game from steam because it not only required a Microsoft login but the login dialog said “let’s get you signed in.” I maintain that if it didn’t use such infantilizing wording I may have given it a chance (I had a Microsoft account, after all.) There’s a certain… dissonance that happens when I’m reading a dialog that pretends me and an app are good buddies, old pals, when in reality I fucking hate the company involved. It can make me feel physically angry, like enough to want to throw my computer. I’m fully aware that this is a flaw in my personality, but I just hate it so, so, so much. Ditto “Got it!” (With the cutesy fucking exclamation point) and other similar informal language in the buttons.
- MereInterest 1y agoIt’s NewSpeak. The concept is often misapplied to refer to the use of new words for new/nuanced concepts, but that isn’t accurate to how it is described in 1984. Instead, NewSpeak is a stripping away of words and phrases, such that only the acceptable responses can even be expressed. Every time a dialogue box has “Sure”/“Ask me later”, they are preventing you from expressing “No”.
- Dylan16807 1y agoPhrasing things like a buddy is not an example of what you're describing. They're separate issues.