On Double Spacing

I don't care for double spacing in general. I find it a needless and annoying aesthetic. The only time I used it was when my teachers demanded it.

From a mechanical perspective, I find the amount of space between lines distracting. By its definition, double spaced lines are so far apart that you could fit an entire line of text between them and it would still be legible. My eyes get lost going from line to line, because it feels like I'm jumping to a new paragraph after every line break.

From an environmental perspective, it is literally a waste of space. If you are writing something of any substantive length, you will be going through excessive amounts of paper to print it out, which irritates me more than it probably should (I truly hate paper waste.)

Similarly, what I dislike the most about double spacing is the mentality of people who prefer it. All too often, people are so concerned about page numbers. It's this whole dick-measuring contest where the higher your page count, the better you are. People talk about how much they love double spacing because it instantly blows up their page count, which makes them feel more accomplished, despite having done literally nothing to add more.

The only value in double spacing is for editing. It's nice to have that space to write notes between lines, rather than shoving them all in margins. And that alone is enough for me to say that it's not completely useless. I just don't like it outside of that single function.