Do you use full stops?
Are you being rude?
A study by Binghamton University (2015) seemed to back this up. They found that text messages ending with a full stop are seen as less sincere than the same message without a full stop.
This is a fascinating podcast on the subject -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002c3cb?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
A study by Binghamton University (2015) seemed to back this up. They found that text messages ending with a full stop are seen as less sincere than the same message without a full stop.
This is a fascinating podcast on the subject -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002c3cb?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
Comments
If that's the meaning, then yes, my emails, texts etc always have full stops.
That would be a typical text message from me.
I think Americans call this punctuation a 'period'
Whether the text messages I send have full stops depends on whether they are sentences. Most of my text messages are sent with correct punctuation (I just checked to see what I do). Ones that are a couple of words (yes, no, I'm outside, and so on) usually don't have punctuation.
If I sent a message that was three sentences, it would be bizarre in the extreme to omit the final full stop, wouldn't it?
I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade
Probably the longest texts I send are orders for fish (I have a very tech savvy fishmonger). They are, of course, immaculately punctuated.
By young people. According to the podcast, millennials.
I'm sorry - I tried to find a transcript but failed.
A full stop is known as a 'period' in the US.
Dr Christian Ilbury was the guest on the podcast. He is a sociolinguist who is broadly interested in language variation and change. His research examines the intersection between language variation and digital culture, with a specific focus on analysing variable patterns of language we use across offline and online space.
So, when we text if we say eg. "Are you happy to come over here instead of going out for coffee?"
The answer -
Fine.
Would be seen as abrupt and rather rude (by millennials and younger)
Whereas -
Fine
Would be friendlier and more acceptable.
Which is confusing on WhatsApp - your name also comes up first so your message says -
My friend does it in a group WhatsApp and it does look odd with her name top and bottom.
This is the way that works in the context of a text conversation -
Looks like the pattern there is sentences with full stops (or ? or !) most of the time. Frequently no full stop on 1 or 2 word replies, or when someone's used an emoji. Age range of contacts quite genuinely 18 (my oldest niece) to 80 (my Mum).
Millennials are now considered embarrassingly middle aged and uncool by Gen Z according to this Guardian article.
My biggest is the run-on sentence. Ones where I have to read them two or three times to get where the breaks are, and where each new thought begins. I wonder if it doesn't have to do with theory of mind -- they don't realize other people don't know what they know; other people don't know where you stopped one thought and took up the next. Never occurs to them. Why put in a period when it's obvious?
"Sir, why have you put a decimal point at the end?"
"That's not a decimal point - it's a full stop! Just because we are doing maths does not mean that we forget our punctuation."
I suspect this might be a very short-term understanding. If you send texts via some kind of speech-to-text interface, the computer will punctuate for you, so the presence or absence of a full stop would not reflect an active choice.
On my WhatsApp account, the name of the sender only appears in the notification box, and is absent when reading the message itself.
And why would my salutation "Mr. McWidget" not appear in a WhatsApp or a text message? It's part of the text itself.
I text a lot and just looked at the family WhatsApp group. I use full stops if I write several sentences but not usually with just a short sentence. My husband and sons seldom write more than one sentence - they, consequently, don’t use full stops.
I think it works in limited situations, usually when the other person refuses to accept your original statement.
A: Would you like to come camping with me and my co-workers next week?
B: No thanks.
A: Are you sure? It'll be fun!
B: No. Thanks again, but I don't like camping.
A: Come on! A new experience for you!
B: I. Don't. Like. Camping. Now can we please talk about something else?
I'm pretty sure that younger people <30, probably find me too wordy, but if I had time, I'd also say somthing like, I'm looking forward to catching up to soften what's being said.
I never overuse it either. None of this!!! Definitely. None. Of. This.
OR THIS.
But the podcast made me think how I'm coming over to younger people in my WhatsApp groups.
So I'm experimenting with using more emojis and fewer full stops 🙂
I have a lot of blind friends who use speech-to-text. I Admin a Facebook 'Coffee Lounge' with thousands of blind users.
The computer makes some interesting choices in spelling and punctuation, sometimes requiring further chat for clarification. It has improved a lot over the years, of course.
I always use punctuation and sometimes it amuses the Roguelings. It irritates them when I send a message and sign off as Dad because it is obvious who the message is from. Their reaction does not stop me.
It all seems "new" to me!
Then again, I am still stuck with putting two spaces after a full stop. It’s muscle memory now, and besides, I find it easier to read.
Me too!
Ah, memories of editing documents for my Dad. He loved indenting paragraphs but never seemed to discover the tab key!
The instruction manual that came with my first (second-hand) typewriter in 1965 specified one space after a comma, two spaces after a colon or semi-colon, and three spaces after a full stop.
Modern wordprocessing software removes them, I've tried.