Innovation? This actually seems like it's building off of something old. Like a telegram: I think people are being overly neurotic! I think we need to talk on the phone more often! I'm cool with the evolution of punctuation! But I don't think we should encourage insecurity!
I agree in that I think part of this can be attributed to overanalyzing text messages on the part of teenagers. Hey, not gonna lie, I did that once. I also remember a time when, if I said "K" to something (as opposed to "OK" or "kk") it meant I was really pissed off. When people used "k" with me I thought they were pissed as well. It was silly.
What the article is dealing with, is attribution. It happens all the time in life, for example: when one is on the highway and then one gets cut off abruptly. Most would immediately respond with anger, or the thought that the driver is crazy or stupid, when in fact any number of things could be happening. The driver's spouse could be critically injured at the hospital, the driver could be in serious need of a bathroom, the accelerator could be broken, etc., etc. Anyway, from what I understand, this is a huge problem with e-mail and causes all kinds of tensions in companies and corporations. As a culture of busy people, I think it's easy to lapse into easy attributions, especially as people (especially younger people) have less and less experience with direct human interaction. I really think that speaking to people instead of texting all the time, even when one does have the luxury to talk, greatly contributes to the miasma of mass attributions, but I have no idea how the shift from texting all the time would come about.
Depending on my audience, I've been leaving punctuation out for a while now for exactly the reasons the author described. I think that there is an interesting similarity between emoji and punctuation itself in how much they can color the mood of a communication containing words.
I've never considered the period a sign of anger or annoyance. I just looked through my old texts, and I almost never end one without punctuation. I even write things like "Ok." Is that weird? I just think it's normal. Maybe everyone thinks I'm a huge asshole! I really can't see the difference between "let's stay in" and "let's stay in." To me, one seems lazy and one doesn't, bur they convey the exact same thing.
I'm relatively young (17), so I can offer some perspective from the teenage side. I definitely think this is one of those issues where it is going to vary greatly with age. This article is very accurate, at least with regards to my experience. Ending a text with a period generally indicates annoyance or frustration with whatever the previous text was (and can sometimes indicate anger, too). It's really a passive aggressive way to do so, however. If I received "Ok." in response to a suggestion or statement that I had just texted, I would immediately assumed that the other person is upset in some way. I would follow up with something like "What? We could do something else if you want" or something similar. "Let's stay in" sounds like a sincere suggestion to me; if I were to disagree I would not hesitate to say it and I would assume you to be open to other suggestions for what to do that night. "Let's stay in." is much more firm, almost like a command. I would expect a lot of resistance to doing something other than staying in, and wouldn't bother suggesting something else unless I was really opposed to the idea of staying in. Exclamation points indicate either sincerity or extreme sarcasm, entirely dependent on context. The question mark still retains its role of forming a question, but, as the article stated, it can make certain statements seem less cocky. It is almost like casting doubt on whatever you just said. "I think I got the highest grade?" Maybe I did, but I am acknowledging that it is possible or even likely I did not. This is all really interesting stuff. It's fascinating how certain punctuation has picked up these connotations. I've never thought about it before, yet it is completely true.
Yes, exactly. I only use periods when my text is longer than one sentence, which is quite rare since these conversations happen mostly in real time. I texted a bit different when my texts were limited to 250 per month. Now that I have unlimited texting, i'd be more inclined to send the two sentences I want to write separately than put it in one text and use punctuation. It's crazy how punctuation actually affects the meaning of the sentence: I'm not mad. I'm not mad... I'm not mad I'm not mad :) These easily range from "everything's fine" to "we're getting in a fight when you get home".
Huh. This is fascinating to me. I'm 31, and I think there is just a disconnect in the way older and younger people communicate. Typically, I use commas and periods in a text just like I would on hubski or other social media sites. That is, I'm not a stickler, but I try to keep it relatively proper. It's never crossed my mind that a period could be in any way misconstrued. Thanks for the insight.