Add them as a friend?

[piecs]

Title
Add them as a friend?

Short, concise description of the idea
The phrase "Add them as a friend" in the gray navigation bar is awkward.

Full description of the idea
"Them" refers to two or more people. It's awkward to see a single user referred to as a "them" instead of "him or her".
An ordered list of benefits

• Please take out the "them" in "Add

Comments

[exdream_]

I think it is a gender neutral pronoun.

[neitherday]

The singular they is gender neutral. Unlike many gender neutral alternatives, the singular they is not a modern creation and can be found in literature from Shakespeare to Jane Austin.

While there is debate about whether or not the singular they is grammatically correct, its usage is growing.

[beginning]

There's debate? I always thought it was just flat-out "wrong." (Not that I really care; I'll keep using it.) Damn, now I have to go Google...

[beginning]

While technically incorrect, it's the generally agreed-upon gender-neutral pronoun for English, and we should keep it for that reason.

[desh]

I'm very much in the descriptive camp that considers "them" to not be incorrect usage in a situation like this. But that's not really the point; the point is that there's an easy rewording that's not awkward at all (not the "him or her" one, but the other ones you proposed) and that avoids this very argument, which can reach holy-war proportions these days. So I'm all in favor of the suggestion.

[october_logic]

Well, one could argue that having it the way it is prompts discussion and thus educates people that it's an accepted (if not entirely grammatically correct) gender-neutral term. I actually wasn't aware of that fact and appreciate the information. :)

However, I'm not opposed to the change. :)

[dandelion]

Only the benefit of less English speakers confusing him, her, and them.
I think you mean fewer English speakers, if we're going to get into grammar pedantry and prescriptivism.

[piecs]

Oh. Oops.