If you use this when sending SMS messages, people do not believe you

Do you want your partner to believe that you really want to meet him or her for dinner and just innocently late? Do you want your sister to believe that you really do not know where her favorite outfit went? Then, perhaps, you should remove punctuation marks, like a period and comma, from your text messages.

Text messages are currently the predominant mode of communication for most people under the age of 50 years. According to a new study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, how you format your text messages affects not only the recipient's representation of your literacy, but also whether he considers it sincere. In particular, when it comes to point.

A new study of scientists

During a small study conducted by scientists at Binghamton University, 126 undergraduates read a series of text messages and notes by hand, and then evaluated sincerity on a scale of 1 to 7. It was found that messages that end in a point are judged to be less sincere than those, Where it is absent. To determine this, the researchers put participants in a situation of simple conversations. Each such exchange of messages included an invitation, formulated in the form of a question, for example, "Do you want to go to the cinema?". The answer was "yes" or "of course". An interesting fact, when the point was not put in handwritten notes, it was perceived as punctuation illiteracy. But when the point was absent in text messages, the study participants rated them as more sincere.

Why is punctuation perceived in SMS messages and notes by hand?

So why do we differently interpret handwritten notes and text messages? Researchers report that our requirements in terms of punctuation are low when it comes to text messages. Punctuation marks are one of the signals that senders use and are perceived by recipients who convey pragmatic and social information. One must take into account the fact that text messages are very short by nature, where each word or symbol is used to convey the context. Thus, when we send a text message without punctuation, it seems more spontaneous and therefore more sincere.

Despite the fact that text messages are one of the forms of writing, in many situations they are used and perceived as a spoken language. Quick text messages mimic the conversation. In a real conversation, people easily convey social and emotional information with a look, facial expressions, voice tone, pauses and so on. Obviously, these mechanisms can not be used during a text conversation, so people rely on what they have - punctuation marks, smileys and deliberate spelling mistakes that mimic the sounds of speech.

Why do we use the point

The point became one of the first punctuation marks created, it was completely neutral and served to indicate the final pause. However, over time, along with the development of our communication skills, this simplicity gave way to more subtle approaches. In 2013, a test was conducted, according to which the point in text messages is perceived as a manifestation of aggression. So now she can catch the receiver unawares if she is in the middle of an informal text conversation. And surprisingly, this leads to skepticism. All this also explains why people use so many exclamation marks. There is always a risk that text messages convey irritation or sarcasm, so people use exclamation points to make sure they are correctly understood.

How are exclamation marks interpreted?

Now scientists continue to conduct similar studies to determine how exclamation marks affect the interpretation of text messages. Although it is still too early to make any definitive conclusions, exclamation marks serve to convey more sincerity.

Changes in the language are always very slow and difficult to observe. However, with the advent of various types of computer-mediated communication, such as text messages, there is a great opportunity to observe how people use language changes.

What can we expect in the future?

As the technology continues to evolve, it is possible that the pendulum can swing in the opposite direction, and we will start writing text messages using colons or "loud laughter" instead of LOL (or perhaps autocorrecting instead of us). The only thing that the researchers advise is to be cautious when you send an email or text message, especially if you are angry or annoyed. People are very sensitive to all the subtleties of the language, so we must all be cautious with both our words and punctuation.