• NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 hours ago

    just to be safe i never use any punctuation at all that way there is no risk of any misunderstanding it has never caused me any problems

  • jtrek@startrek.website
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    9 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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      9 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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        8 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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        7 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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        9 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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            6 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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              3 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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            6 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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        8 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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          2 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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        9 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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          9 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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      7 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…

  • Joelk111@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    My therapist likes to end texts with ellipsis… Apparently my partner’s mom does this too, so maybe it’s a boomer/old person thing…

    • Monument@piefed.world
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      2 hours ago

      A colleague signs his emails with his name followed by an ellipse, with no sign off pleasantry.
      It always seems like he’s sulking.

      Monument…

    • prettybunnys@piefed.social
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      3 hours ago

      My kids therapist would do that too and it always made her seem Ominous.

      Like:

      “I’ll see you two next week …”

      Like, are you threatening us?

      • Joelk111@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        That’s exactly what it was for me and, before I realized I should stop reading into it because she’s my therapist and direct communication is the whole point, I thought I might’ve said something weird.

    • Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Def a boomer thing. I usually just stick to emojis if im unfamiliar with the person 😅

      Example above. I hate emojis, but they tend to mask my autism more than tags /gen

    • protist@retrofed.com
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      6 hours ago

      While more boomers to this than do people in other generations, there are definitely younger people who do this too. Almost without exception, they’re people who lack personality and who have terrible communication skills.

  • farmgineer@nord.pub
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    6 hours ago

    I should have thought of this for the “when did you realize you were out of touch” or something similar. Periods go at the end of sentences and I shall yell it at the clouds as befits my age.

  • Christian@lemmy.ml
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    5 hours ago

    I totally overthink the way I style my text messages with capitalization and punctuation. I don’t think I could ever articulate why a specific message ends up where it does beyond “tone somehow feels better than the other choices”. I definitely don’t have hard rules like this comic, like a period usually does read like the bottom one here but there are still occasions where it will just feel more relaxed/down-to-earth to me.

    Probably no one I text with gives a shit.