Can we please BAN the use of relative dates? They seem entirely use-free to me.

You know what I mean, right?  It’s when, instead of a date/time-stamp on a blog post or article it says “3 hours ago” or worse “3 months ago”.  It’s useless in so many ways and I’ve never heard an argument for the use of relative dates.

“They’re perfect for people who don’t really care when something was posted!”

“Relative dating, for when specificity doesn’t matter!”

“Who wants a cold, in humanly precise date and time on an Internet post? Give me warm, human vagueness any day!”

I’ve tried really hard to come up with a good reason for relative dating to be better than absolute dating.

Isn’t it ridiculous that we even have a phrase for that?  “Absolute dating.”  Funny how that just refers to “putting the actual date down.”

Imagine if we tried to use relative dating on formal documents.  You sign your tax return “4 months ago.”

I guess you can avoid being late that way.