The truth about texting
Image: in the public domain
Are you really committing a grievous error by using correct punctuation in text messages? A recent study out of the US getting a lot of media attention seems to suggest exactly that. But how much can we really read into their findings?
‘Texting insincerely: The role of the period in text messaging’, by Binghamton University, compared text message replies with and without full stops. The authors found that ‘texts that ended with a period [i.e. a full stop] were rated as less sincere than those that did not’ and ‘for handwritten notes, no such difference was found’.
Apparently subjects were asked their impressions of correspondence that included one-word responses such as ‘Okay’, ‘Sure’, ‘Yep’ and ‘Yup’. Text messages with full stops were rated as ‘less sincere’ than those without them.
Online news service EurekaAlert! quotes the study’s head researcher, Celia Klin, as saying:
Texting is lacking many of the social cues used in actual face-to-face conversations. Thus, it makes sense that texters rely on what they have available to them – emoticons, deliberate misspellings that mimic speech sounds and, according to our data, punctuation.
This all sounds pretty reasonable. Text messaging is a (relatively) new form of communication, and the conventions surrounding its use are continually evolving. But what if the texter had just used an exclamation mark instead of a full stop? While we may frown on its lack of subtlety in other mediums, texting ‘Sure!’ indicates significantly more enthusiasm than ‘Sure.’ (if enthusiasm is what you want to convey). And it is correct punctuation.
Another consideration is context. Who is sending the message? And who is reading it? In the case of Klin’s study, it was 126 university undergraduates. Not a particularly large or representative sample, although it may give us some indication of the SMS syntax conventions evolving within this particular user group. But how might the same subjects have interpreted the level of sincerity or otherwise if the texter was someone they knew (and, crucially, whose texting style they knew)? Would they view it differently if, for example, the text was from their mother?
So if you are a stickler for ‘correct’ grammar and punctuation in text messages, you needn’t be too put off by these findings. But that’s not to say those who don’t share your passion for pedantry are wrong.
The English language is a constantly evolving beast, and so long as the intended meaning is being communicated, then it’s hard to claim the high moral ground against those who choose to use every tool at their disposal (yes, even emoji).
