Is punctuation in text messages unfriendly?

[CruCru]

A little while ago, I read something (possibly in the Guardian) that said that young people find my style of texting (basically, full stops and question marks, paragraphs etc) weird and unfriendly. It is better to leave off the punctuation altogether (although ! are fine) and send a separate text for each sentence.

I must admit that getting a whole string of texts off one person really irritates me. I’ve turned off the sound of texts / WhatsApps (because the repeated ping was making me crazy). I’ll start to reply but then get a whole load of other messages, making my reply pointless.

Am I old? I’m only 41.

It's not. My 15 year old uses punctuation in her texts so do her friends.

I dont think it's that important to use it correctly and worry about it too much though.

I do think sending a text per sentence is quite the dont thing with younger people.

I dont do it. Dont see as it matters.

Most people are well aware that everyone communicates differently.

Tom

I don't think so, but I'm in my 40s too. I write my text messages in standard English as I would anything else. I find barely literate, unpunctuated text messages annoying (when I know full well the sender is capable of writing intelligibly in other media - obviously it's different if the person has poor literacy in general).

Tom scott did a language files video about language, grammar and punction in texting and social media very recently.

Its just language evolving like it always has done

Yup. Young people read this text differently

“See you later.” With a full stop that’s OH GOD IM IN THE SHIT. Imagine this emoji 🤨

“See you later “ is literally that.

Was this a long time ago? As I remember texts basically being abbreviations before naturally falling back to full sentences due to predictive texting.

Everyone I know writes in full. If anything, it's irrating when people shorten words unnecessarily or just spell wrong..

I may just be a severely grumpy 26 year old however!

I have done masses of research on this. Doesn’t mean they’re right

I'm 30 and I always use punctuation, paragraphs and never put "kisses". I've always been this way. I must come across as a right miserable sod!

Some message programs are set so the 'enter' sends them instead of a new line so I guess people get used to that.
People can say that punctuation is unfriendly but it's laziness. Sometimes a lack of punctuation makes it hard to know what is going on. But when I read my dds messages, they are pretty inane anyway so maybe that's why. :)

I'm 29 and have been known to use semicolons in texts

I only send a string of short messages when I'm ranting about something to DH

I find myself trying to avoid using full stops in texts as I feel like it comes across as shitty, even when it's not! My texts are peppered with exclamation marks and emoji in a bid to try and keep the tone friendly.

My dad never uses emojis or punctuation and his texts always come across as though he is pissed off with you!

@NaughtToThreeSadOnions I came here to post that! (and I love your username too, if it's referencing who I think it's referencing...)

DD doesn't use abbreviations, acronyms, etc. when texting me, but does type in all lower case

There are certain styles that have evolved over the past few years, often starting from specific sites/ media - Twitter/ tumblr probably the biggest. So people often use those kind of styles to communicate a certain mood or sentiment (hard to give examples!). But I think you need to be fairly literate/ savvy to play with those styles in the first place, and would probably appropriate punctuation where needed to indicate mood.

I always write "correctly" as, to me, doing otherwise doesn't communicate what I want, how I want it.
I have a friend that finishes every sentence with a full stop though (I often use ! ) and combined with her short sentences it sounds like she's constantly pissed off - I have to make a real effort to not read it like that!

No kisses. Ever.

Slightly off topic, but there was an interesting woman on R4 recently talking about not using exclamation marks in emails, she went cold turkey and when she did so, people called her up and asked why she was being all pissy with them.

They also discussed how women were more likely to use exclamation marks to make themselves seem less aggressive.

I use lots of punctuation, it’s not unknown for me to bracket and then square bracket within a text! I think it would now be more scary for dh to receive a message that just says “c u latr” - he would crap himself

Oh and I’m medium aged- 30

My husband adds full stops when he wants me to know he is pissed off or annoyed. So 'see you later!' Becomes 'see you later.' 😂

I always use punctuation - how anyone could just string a sentence together with no punctuation is beyond me - terrible use of language! DH nephew used to send me messages with ‘totes, c u in a bit’ or ‘w r u?’ I used to get so annoyed but I suppose it’s what young people use these days.

@Cuppa12345 er yes. I just said that

@DamonOwlBarn as you're watching Tom Scott I Suspect my user name is a reference to who you think it is, if you're thinking about a youtuber who has a brown sofa and an endless supply of pound shop tat then yes you're right.

I'm 51 so I write in proper sentences, with punctuation etc, even semi-colons. I do agree that the last sentence having a full stop does seem terse. There's no logic to that, but it does.

I do think if your text extends to multiple paragraphs then you should probably not be texting. That would be an email, or (the horror) an actual conversation.

I do try to keep my exclamation marks down. Sometimes I re-read and think I sound like an over-excited puppy 🐶 so I have to remove a few

I over-use emojis instead

NaughtToThreeSadOnions

Bloody love Ashens. The video with that terrifying Aunt May doll that looked like Gary Busey had me in tears of laughter.

I hate no punctuation in texts. I don't care if that makes me old.

I use full punctuation in my texts, etc. 2 of my kids do the same, the other does it when texting me but differently with friends.

Frankly, I don’t really care how it’s perceived as I’m not changing my style. I don’t expect anyone else to change their’s either.