• jtrek@startrek.website
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    14 hours ago

    I had someone get mad at me once because I ended an otherwise innocuous text with a period. I was like, it doesn’t mean anything. I was going to write another sentence, but then didn’t. Stop imagining secret meanings.

    I think they were my worst ex partner, come to think of it.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      That was very much a milennial thing about 15 years ago. I didn’t get it at all, adding a period was somehow like a sign of passive aggressiveness or something.

      Thank goodness that seems to have faded away.

      • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldM
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        14 hours ago

        Thank goodness that seems to have faded away.

        What the fuck did you just fucking punctuate at me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills!

      • Zarobi@aussie.zone
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        12 hours ago

        It’s still a thing. The new rule is: never end a paragraph with a full stop, otherwise it’s perceived as overly formal or cold. You can still use them within paragraphs, it’s only the very end of a paragraph you omit it

        At least, that’s the rule my autistic ass has reverse-engineered. Also, lol cannot have any punctuation immediately after it like “lol.”, otherwise it comes across as flat and half-hearted. You need to restructure your whole sentence if that happens

      • JustARaccoon@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        definitely not just a millennial thing, I’ve had gen Z friends call me out on using proper punctuation in online messages lol

          • BarrelAgedBoredom@lemmy.zip
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            11 hours ago

            It’s just a way people indicate tone. Online communication is developing its own grammar and punctuation rules to get around the shortcomings of written language to succinctly express emotion/intent

            • prettybunnys@piefed.social
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              9 hours ago

              Written language is evolving, the period being the pointed end to a sentence may lead to a new punctuation mark as the period only becomes “ok” as a separator.

              Or maybe we go full comma, that would be weird, I think, yeah,

          • ° 。Juniper 。°@piefed.zip
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            11 hours ago

            I just went through 4 years of university as an elder millenial, the youngins still feel this way and I honestly thought it was a Gen Z thing. I’d never encountered the punctuation issue before I decided to go to school again

      • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works
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        14 hours ago

        Maybe an older millennial thing but I remember the big thing being “we have full keyboards now so no more t9 speak”. That included using proper punctuation.

        That being said, as an anxious person I still end almost every text with an ! so people don’t think I am upset.

        • proudblond@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          I’m an older millennial and I basically refused to text more than a three-word sentence at a time up until, oh, probably 10 years ago because I hated typing on my phone. I doubt I used punctuation at all.

      • TrackenDaKracken@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        Has it? I’m really asking. The only one I text with regularly is my son, and I taught him to use punctuation, and he knows I prefer it.

        • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          AFAIK. My kids are texting fools. I asked, it’s not a thing. However, getting upset about any manufactured slight due to punctuation is a thing.

    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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      12 hours ago

      Yeah I was pretty taken aback when someone first told me about this. She got mad that I ended a text with a period. I was like “what, that’s just proper punctuation.” And then she got even madder because she thought I was being a grammar snob. I was so fucking confused.

      Later she said that it’s like saying “period.” at the end of a sentence, and accused me of knowing that and only pretending not to. But like, if I wanted to sentence to read “period” at the end, I would have typed the word “period.”

      I got really insecure and hypervigilant about ending texts with periods after that. It took me years to get over that and even now I still get anxious about sending texts with periods in them…