Why Gen Z considers the full stop rude

Correctly punctuated messages are being interpreted by younger generations quite differently. The message is all that is relevant to them. Anything additional can change its interpretation

Strange as it may seem, millennials and Gen Z have of late started to have an issue with people finishing text messages with a full stop. Calls are in fact being made for full stops to be made “illegal” at the end of text messages as they are seen to be an act of muted aggression!

A recent study by Binghamton University in New York found texts ending with a full stop as being seen as “less sincere” than messages that do not end with a dot. According to linguistic experts, Gen Z are used to communicating via text with a series of short messages without full stops. Full stops, research shows, are very much the exception and not the norm in young people’s instant messages. In fact, the full stop has a new role in signifying an abrupt or angry tone of voice. Correctly punctuated messages are being interpreted by younger generations quite differently. The humble dot these days is seen to connote blunt, rude and abrupt messaging. The dot, believe it or not, is supposed to alert recipients that the sender of the text is actually angry.

What is wrong with putting a full stop at the end of a sentence? For Gen Z, the full stop seems to mean “mad” or “serious”, or so research shows. The full stop is an “act of aggression”, almost like slamming the door in one’s face.

With young people today, sending a message to someone invariably means breaking up one’s thoughts in such a way that each thought is sent out as a new message. The message is all that is relevant; anything additional included in the message can take on an additional interpretation. Gen Z today would have you believe that the problem arises when you have a positive message ending with a full stop. That makes the message serious despite the positivity of the content. It is the juxtaposition of the positivity and the full stop that creates a sense of “passive aggression”.

So, how can you tell if someone is actually annoyed or just using a full stop in the old traditional sense? Well, linguists would have us believe that it is all related to context. If you and your friends don’t normally use full stops in a WhatsApp group and then somebody does, the natural inference amongst today’s generation is that the full-stopper is probably trying to convey something. And that something is obviously not positive. Connotations can also vary by nationality. Cultural differences can impact interpretations. Americans and Canadians don’t use, for example, an “x” to denote a kiss at the end of a message. But the Brits do.

The use of informal grammar and text slang in messaging today has led to accusations of dumbing down the English language and making people lazy. Experts, however, point to the fact that using slang or incorrect spellings actually takes more effort in an age of smartphones, autocorrect and predictive text. Online messaging does not allow the use of body language or tone of voice to convey emotions and meanings. Back in the 1500s there was in fact, an “irony” punctuation that came into vogue but never really caught on. In the last few years, we have actually encouraged linguistic creativity by using symbols and abbreviations. The acronym “lol” (laugh out loud) is a sure fire way to communicate sarcasm which can equally well be connoted by the upside-down face emoji. Emojis have, in fact, taken language to a different elevation by being interspersed in messages and adding nuance and subtleties to the messaging, which is easy to comprehend both for the sender and the receiver.

In 2015, language expert Professor David Crystal published a book, Making a Point, in which he explained that the full stop has in modern language become an “emotion marker” used to signify anger or annoyance. The professor said, “People simply do not put full stops in, unless they want to make a point”.

Funnily enough, the opposite of an abrupt, brusque full stop is actually the much more light-hearted exclamation mark! The use of the exclamation mark makes the sender actually seem sincere and engaged.

As a student of English literature, my belief is that traditionally people would convey social and emotional information with eye gaze, facial expressions, tone of voice, pauses and so on. These mechanisms cannot be used in texting. Hence, it makes sense that textors rely on what they have available to them – emoticons, deliberate misspellings that mimic speech sounds and of course, punctuations.

So going forward, ditch the “aggressive” full stop to start writing like a teenager. Don’t despair at the grammatical shortcomings. It is the new normal. In the contemporary world, the full stop is no longer an anticipated ending to a text message. Its meaning has changed from a humble sentence stopper to an abrupt, dramatic marker. Period.

The writer is managing director of Rediffusion