Two space or not two space

I thought I would punch out this Public Service Announcement in regards to the usage of spacing after periods, and this site's policy thereof.

It's worth mentioning that I grew up fascinated by computers and anything remotely like them. When my mother signed up for a typing course at a community college, we inherited an old IBM typewriter (it looked like this) and I went crazy on it. I went even crazier when we picked up a badass electronic typewriter that could even erase text (so long as you hadn't moved on to the next line).

I didn't quite know how to type, but I learned from my mother that two spaces followed a period. Since all the other rules I followed seemed equally arbitrary, I didn't give this much thought. Sentence. Period. Space. Space. Another sentence. Space. Space. I internalized this rhythm, and when we finally got our first 486, I carried this habit forth into the electronic medium.

Two decades later with some learning in typography and a slap in the face from Slate, I realise that I've had it wrong all along. Not only does one space after a period look better, it is less wasteful and less effort to accomplish. It wins.

This is why you will see one space between periods from now on on The Slow Motion Suicides. I am considering hiring a young Chinese boy to correct my previous posts, but there are no immediate plans to do so. Depends on the boy really.