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.

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.

Oh, is that what it is?

Colleagues - especially younger women - send emails starting ‘I hope you are well!’ & it just looks daft to me & makes me want to reply ‘Yes! Thank you! I hope you are well too!’ Which I don’t, obviously, but maybe my ‘Yes thanks, hope you’re well too.’ looks pissy. Hmmm.

I think I'd be interpreting a thimbs up as "received, read, understood, all fine," Barabara. It's been used as a positive sign since the Romans, and I see no reason to stop now.

I have a strong aversion to excessive use of exclamation marks. I take mails/texts less seriously if they're full of !!!!!!. They have more impact when used sparingly. My director uses a double exclamation mark when I would use one. I asked him if it was a Dutch thing (he is Dutch) or just idiosyncratic, but I didn't really get an answer, and his response implied he thought I was weird for asking (though he should know me well enough to know it was a normal sort of question for me.)

I had to start using emojis because my daughters were finding it difficult to tell whether or not I was being serious. I refuse to abandon punctuation, though.

Also I don't care if people think I am aggressive for not using exclamation marks. I am more than happy to debate the point with them.

I hate no punctuation in texts. It makes me feel out of breath by the time I’ve read it all as one continuous sentence. I won’t claim to have perfect grammar or anything, but a full stop here and a comma there never killed anyone. I’d ignore you if you started sending one sentence text messages. I’m 28 so hardly ancient- I even remember proper text speak (which I also never really “got”).

In the olden days of my 3310 and being charged for 2x SMS messages for going over the amount of characters then it made sense to txt spk. Now I mainly use WhatsApp can send long messages it's easier for me to type normally. My friends sil Starts Each New Word With A Capital Letter Like This, that must take longer to type and be so annoying to read for the recipient too.

I can tell what mood my friend is in, depending if she ends her texts with a full stop or an x. A full stop basically means she's not up for talking and to leave her alone . . .

I try not to finish my texts to anyone with a full stop. I use full punctuation everywhere else in the message, but I never finish with a full stop - just leave it open (seems friendlier) or an x depending on who is receiving the message.

Have people actually had real life conversations with people about what people mean by full stops, exclamation points etc, or are you all just assuming, which seems mad when there's no convention.

To me the exclamation point seems to make the words more agressive not less, but exclaims some random ones on here in threads such as 'where should we go on a city break' and someone will reply:

Malaga!

Wow. The full stop is so powerful. Who knew?!

I'm laughing so much that a generation which gets fed up when older people call them snowflakes chooses to be offended by the correct use of normal punctuation. It's beyond parody.

I'm in my fifties. I've been texting since SMS was available and that's certainly before the year 2000. This is the first time I've heard this total shit. If my younger colleagues think a full stop is rude they need to take a chill pill.

Possibly two. 🙄🤣

I try not to finish my texts to anyone with a full stop. I use full punctuation everywhere else in the message, but I never finish with a full stop - just leave it open (seems friendlier) or an x depending on who is receiving the message.

Life is far too short to start imposing these arcane rules on yourself, let alone anyone else.