this old dog is having a hard time learning this "new" trick

Some may view blogging as just a silly thing, but in my heart, I consider myself a writer.  Professional accolades aren't a requisite in my book (ha- didn't even plan that groan-worthy pun!); in my opinion, you just have to write and feel the lovely release that only writing can bring.  I may not always have perfect as punch grammar, I have an obsessive relationship with commas, and even I hate to admit that I incorrectly spell a word here and there.  All in all though, I consider myself to have a generally strong grasp of the basic conventions of our language and of the task of writing.

Except, there's one serious thing wrong with the above paragraph, and it's a convention that I truly had no idea had changed. I feel like a serious old-fogey for being surprised when I read this Slate article that a friend had posted on Facebook last month. Before you click the article, can you tell the difference between the above paragraph and this one?

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Yup, I'm a two-spacer. I estimate that I've been typing for just over twenty years, starting a long time ago on my mom's old typewriter, moving up to my very own electric typewriter in college, and finally on computers. It's always, ALWAYS been my understanding that you click that space bar two times after hitting the period. It's in my nature. Peanut butter & jelly. Cookies & milk. Period & two spaces. They just go together.

I'm desperately trying to break this habit, but right now it involves typing a few paragraphs, followed by an "Oh crap," and going back to delete one space between each sentence. It's frustrating. (I just typed two spaces between the last two sentences- you know the ones that I was writing about NOT putting two spaces. Ugh.)

This is a very challenging change for me, but one that I feel is necessary, since according to the Slate article, I'm as outdated as a dinosaur and worthy of mocking. I feel shame for all those book reviews, posts and columns I have out in the Internet world that are full of these embarrassing two-space pairs, but they are what they are, and there's no going back.

Am I the lone lover of the two-spaces? Have you broken your habit, dear reader, or did you never even develop the seemingly silly tendency in the first place? Am I struggling alone?


Apparently out of date,