this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
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I know it makes me sound like the old guy I am, but I lament the extinction of punctuation on social media.
Interestingly, no punctuation has become a form of punctuation. Ending your statement with no period has the effect of creating a softer landing for the sentence. With a period might come off too hard.
I'm out of the loop on this one. Are you for real?
It's real.
Adding a period adds a sense of finality and emphasis, while ending your sentence without one means the tone is lighter. This is inherited from texting habits
https://theconversation.com/why-does-using-a-period-in-a-text-message-make-you-sound-insincere-or-angry-61792
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217306192?casa_token=2GuEomfEzyMAAAAA:xnd6UeoYlKC8-DUZBhiC4hh5p3CZefiXL6FX3ku7yTixGEd6pQ_n5BORZ-iFZY_-zz7rP_ArsyY
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215302181?casa_token=NC-Hjq5VqI8AAAAA:JKFpxaM-KHvzCSr9Iw0OJVUiMsDh3ecSAQpdnYoFGMfeTm-HakGAVXK3XhYQin6uGrmS-Q2XjX8
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S089858982030108X?casa_token=L_bofonFo1QAAAAA:yqKmY7po0gXJdUxoBDv4Lw_TGMxb-oeBplHLSKxlZySiBb7Z8nIQmfmMYAB3mfl0SI37fYWY6Ho
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215302181?casa_token=FBJrNZQnj-UAAAAA:afZ2QLPX4KeSvY7_LtQ2nfJJCY27fOGrxCpQXP_UegQW1TqSShC0cCVFNVw9ZXyQW51N0Ssoc4Q
I'm not a professional linguist, but I can confirm. It's about trying to set a tone for your written sentences. We don't use periods when we talk in real life, you know? Adding them to a text makes it read too serious
I can't see why they wouldn't be
See how that sentence got that soft landing as opposed to this one that informs you of the nature of the statement it's at the end of? The first one doesn't direct you to get excited or to take the statement as a question, but it also doesn't give the hard ending of a period. It lets the sentence "breathe"
I don't feel like it extends to long(er) form communication. Texting, absolutely.
is very different from
in text. Or lol is "that's funny" and lol period is more "fuck you." Longer things makes punctuation more necessary.
... Are you for real?
yea?
this is an informal sentence
This makes it seem like I'm in a professional environment.
Yup, there's a book called "Because Internet" by Gretchen McCulloch that details intergenerational linguistics. Ultimately a lot of the answers boil down to "because internet" thus the name of the book, but it digs into the various causes of linguistic shifts in generations. Interestingly "written" communication has become much more relevant and so people have developed styles, techniques, and quirks to represent themselves. We see trends like young people not ending their sentences with periods, the use of ellipses, capitalization and more
Remember, linguistics is a descriptive science and not prescriptive. You can't control how people communicate but you can observe trends
I find myself doing this to telegraph when I'm being sarcastic or facetious.
Yeah there's a massive difference between "haha" and "haha."
Or ROFLCOPTER
vs
roflcopter
I died a little when people started misspelling headlines on reddit just for the comment correction clicks rather than just downvoting it into oblivion.
I have slowly relented on emoji since they can be handy at times but I dread using them so end up writing about 5x more to convey my intention than just using 😆😅😭🥹🤪🥺🤐😱🤬🤯🤮😈 or ☺️.
My problem with emojis is that they're so often used for sarcasm that it's hard to tell whether a 👍is supposed to be an "I agree" or a "yeah whatever"
Meaning there's a better emoji. Thumbs up has and should always mean just thumbs up.
A more appropriate sarcastic thumbs up would be. 🤪👍
The whole point of emoji is to literally help convey the direct emotion. If someone just uses thumbs up with no context expecting it to be read as sarcasm, then they just suck.
Have you ever given someone a thumbs up irl without a dumbass face or full body twitch attached if it was sarcastic? I sure haven't lol.
[Serious] People hate on sarcasm tags but I'd go even further and preface nearly everything with Elcor emotion tags.
I actually have, when someone was annoying me. A goofy face wouldn't convey the disinterest I have in continuing a conversation. I guess 😐👍 could work, but that requires enough effort that it undermines the disinterest part.
At least it doesn't hurt the readability here. You should see the stream of consciousness Tumblr essays that use as little punctuation as possible and avoid all capitalisation.
Depends on the context--a short statement can be fully understood on its own if separated by a paragraph (or just the end of the message itself). Lack of punctuation is really only an issue with huge run-on sentences.
But I'm on board with a little message chilling on its own without a period
I was the guy who would spell out every word and use correct punctuation when sending texts on mobile phones.