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Is s/he eating enough through the day?

I see this all the time these days. Why do they do this? This means:

Is s or he eating enough through the day?

which makes no sense. Clearly, they meant to type:

Is (s)he eating enough through the day?

Or:

Is he/she eating enough through the day?

Or:

Is [s]he eating enough through the day?

Why do they not realize that "/" means "or"? They must have read this somewhere prominent as it has spread a lot.

Even though I can "interpret" it, it's very annoying to see this and know that other eyeballs are registering it and their brains make "mental notes" for future times when they are themselves in need to express the same thing, and then they use the same practice.

Mitch
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Yassin Listerman
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    English has struggled with this problem for centuries. See https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/48/is-there-a-correct-gender-neutral-singular-pronoun-his-vs-her-vs-their/55#55 – Xanne Jun 15 '20 at 17:06
  • @Xanne, the OP is objecting to the use of the slash in s/he as opposed to its use in he/she. This is a much more specific matter than the general issues about the gender of pronouns, that are explored in the answers to the linked question. The problem with this 'question', though, is that it is primarily an expression of annoyance; it is not clear what the question really is. – jsw29 Jun 15 '20 at 17:20
  • Why not? Because putting the (s) in parentheses is relegating she to a subordinate place, the very thing it is not supposed to be doing. Putting it as [s] means it was added to text where it did not appear, just as bad. – Weather Vane Jun 15 '20 at 17:51
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    I fear the tide is still coming in despite Cnut's commands. When enough people are wrong, they are right. – Greybeard Jun 15 '20 at 18:16
  • Does this answer your question? Using slash (/) as an abbreviation. So instead of seeing it as "stupid" (original title) you could see it as a quite customary abbreviation style, in this case an abbreviation of she or he. It's a strange example you use though, when asking about a specific person. I would be a bit miffed if referred to as "she or he". – Weather Vane Jun 15 '20 at 19:08

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