Period. Full Stop. Point. Whatever It’s Called, Millennials Aren’t Using It
One of the oldest forms of punctuation may be dying
The period — the full-stop signal we all learn as children, whose use stretches back at least to the Middle Ages — is gradually being felled in the barrage of instant messaging that has become synonymous with the digital age
.. “In an instant message, it is pretty obvious a sentence has come to an end, and none will have a full stop,” he added “So why use it?”
.. Increasingly, says Professor Crystal, whose books include “Making a Point: The Persnickety Story of English Punctuation,” the period is being deployed as a weapon to show irony, syntactic snark, insincerity, even aggression
If the love of your life just canceled the candlelit, six-course, home-cooked dinner you have prepared, you are best advised to include a period when you respond “Fine.” to show annoyance
.. “The period now has an emotional charge and has become an emoticon of sorts
.. Those text message with periods were rated as less sincere, the study found, whereas it made no difference in the notes penned by hand
.. “It is not necessary to use a period in a text message, so to make something explicit that is already implicit makes a point of it,” he said “It’s like when you say, ‘I am not going – period’ It’s a mark It can be aggressive It can be emphatic It can mean, ‘I have no more to say’