Singular "they" on Facebook

Dave Wilton dave at WILTON.NET
Sat Aug 10 11:19:39 UTC 2013


My apologies if this has been mentioned before...

I've noticed that Facebook, and probably other social media applications,
uses the singular "they" when the person's sex has not been indicated. As in
"Jane Doe changed their profile picture." The software will use "his" or
"her" when the person has indicated their sex in the profile. If one does
not do so, then it uses "they."

Just another example of the usage spreading.

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