Reay JespersenMar 8, 2023

*PLEASE BOOST*

I’m an English major and a writer.
Old habits die hard.
But I’m always trying to learn new things, including communication nuances.

All of which is background leading up to this poll:

Should I stop adding periods at the end of texts that are intended to be open-ended and invite a reply (i.e. where I don’t want to appear offish or as if I’m trying to end the discussion)?

No. Punctuation matters.
33%
It doesn’t matter. Stop overthinking things.
51.8%
Absolutely. Get with the times, old man.
15.3%
Poll ended at .
Show threadAn Okay Dad

@reay I asked some younger adult friends about this not too long ago. Mostly I heard "it depends." Context and speaker matter, and they mostly know someone is being offish when they see it.

I refuse to give up on punctuation completely, but I have made some effort to be less formal about it when chatting with friends. I've noticed maybe a little more engagement when I don't punctuate short answers?

Mar 8, 2023 at 9:28pmWeb